JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

Pioneer  in  Industrial  Welfare 


Other  Books  by  the  Author 


American  Rowing 
Common  Sense  and  Labour 
Why  Men  Strike 
The  Book  of  Business 
My  Life  and  Work  (With  Henry 
Ford) 

The  First  Million  the  Hardest 

(With  A.  B.  Farquhar) 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

The  founder  of  the  National  Cash  Register  Co.  and  a  pioneer  in  the  field  of  in¬ 
dustrial  welfare 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

Pioneer  in  Industrial  Welfare 


BY 

SAMUEL  CROWTHER 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1924 


COPYRIGHT,  1923)  BY 
DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

COPYRIGHT,  1922,  1923,  BY  A.  W.  SHAW  COMPANY 

PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
AT 

THE  COUNTRY  LIFE  PRESS,  GARDEN  CITY,  N.  Y. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  4  PAQE 

I.  In  General .  1 

II.  The  Early  Years . 19 

III.  In  the  Business  Kindergarten  ....  37 

IV.  Getting  the  Business  Under  Way  ...  52 

V.  Breaking  out  of  Business  and  Breaking 

in  Again . 72 

VI.  Learning  How  to  Sell  . . 87 

VII.  The  Primer  and  the  Start  of  Big  Business  .  103 

VIII.  The  Big  Drive . 120 

IX.  Bridging  the  Panic  of  1893  137 

X.  The  Beginnings  of  Scientific  Selling  .  .  152 

XI.  Factory  and  Finance . 168 

XII.  Welfare  Work  and  Labour  .....  190 

XIII.  The  Search  for  Health . 208 

XIV.  Men  and  Management . 231 

XV.  More  of  Men  and  Methods . 245 

XVI.  Foreign  Business . 264 

XVII.  Patterson  the  Advertiser . 285 

XVIII.  The  Man  as  a  Citizen . 302 

XIX.  The  Development  of  Dayton . 323 

XX.  The  Man  and  His  Work . 349 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 
John  H.  Patterson  Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

At  twelve  years  of  age  .  6 

At  about  twenty  years  of  age .  7 

Where  Mr.  Patterson  started  in  business  ...  42 

The  young  coal  merchant’s  bookkeeping  ...  43 

A  system  of  receipts  devised  by  “  J.  H.  P.”  .  .  50 

James  Bitty,  the  inventor  of  the  cash  register  .  .  51 

The  development  of  the  cash  register  .  .  54-55 

“Well,  indeed!” . 70 

In  Montana  in  1884  71 

The  cradle  of  the  cash  register  industry  ....  74 

The  first  cash  register  factory . 75 

Some  of  the  eighteen  kinds  of  advertising  ...  82 

The  “Three  Key  Sample” . 83 

General  Leonard  Wood  visits  the  N.  C.  R.  factory  102 

Mrs.  John  H.  Patterson . 103 

A  believer  in  pocket  note-books  ....  .118 

Mr.  Patterson’s  bedroom . 119 

The  first  agents’  training  class . 134 

Mr.  Patterson’s  first  workers . 135 

The  development  of  the  N.  C.  R.  Plant  .  .  150-151 

The  development  of  the  N.  C.  R.  Plant  .  .  154-155 

Some  of  John  H.  Patterson’s  patents . 162 

A  rough  drawing  of  a  patent  by  “  J.  H.  P.”  .  .  163 

The  children’s  gardens .  .  182 

The  attractive  vista  from  the  old  elm  tree  .  .  183 

vii 


viii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FAC 'HQ  VAQB 

Pleasant  surroundings  for  N.  C.  R.  workers  .  .  186 
One  of  the  rest  rooms  for  women  at  the  N.  C.  R.  187 

Reception  room  and  clinic . 194 

The  noon-hour  meeting  and  entertainment  .  .  195 
Healthful  conditions  for  workers  ....  198-199 

The  remodelled  N.  C.  R.  schoolhouse  ....  202 

The  library  of  the  N.  C.  R.  Co . 203 

The  girls’  dining  room  . 210 

The  dining  room  for  men . 211 

An  owl  class  in  salesmanship . 218 

The  community  country  club . .  .  219 

The  company’s  picnic . 226 

His  search  for  health . 227 

The  4 ‘slide  room” . 230 

Welfare  Hall . 231 

A  distribution  of  prizes  in  1921  .  246 

J.  H.  Barringer,  General  Manager . 247 

G.  H.  Wark,  European  Manager  at  Berlin  .  .  .  262 

A  meeting  in  advertising . 263 

The  printing  room  of  the  N.  C.  R.  Co . 278 

Mr.  Patterson’s  home  at  Far  Hills . 279 

At  the  time  of  the  great  rain .  282-283 

John  H.  Patterson  and  his  family  in  1920  .  .  .  290 

The  Women’s  Century  Club  in  session  .  .  .  291 

A  children’s  meeting  every  Saturday  morning  .  .  310 

The  Boys’  Box  Furniture  Company  at  work  .311 

The  old  barn  club . 326 

Mr.  Patterson’s  daily  list  of  things  to  do  .  .  .  327 

A  chart  of  “Things  to  Do” . 330 

Frederick  B.  Patterson . 331 

A  convention  of  salesmen’s  wives . 338 

Mr.  Patterson  at  his  desk  at  the  age  of  75  .  .  .  339 

\ 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

Pioneer  in  Industrial  Welfare 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Pioneer  in  Industrial  Welfare 


CHAPTER  I 

I 

IN  GENERAL 

A  SANDY-HEADED  farm  boy  came  back  from 
college  to  conquer  the  world.  The  world  had  a 
l  different  view.  It  was  amused  at  the  very  no¬ 
tion  of  being  conquered.  The  boy  could  find  no  work  at 
all  other  than  on  his  father’s  farm — which  bothered  him 
mightily  because  he  could  have  done  the  chores  quite  as 
well  without  a  higher  education.  He  had  no  trade,  he 
had  no  profession,  he  had  not  even  the  ordinary  clerical 
knowledge  to  qualify  as  a  bookkeeper — he  had  only  a 
diploma  and  no  one  seemed  to  think  that  that  entitled  him 
to  a  job.  The  boy  was  twenty-three  years  old — far  too  old 
to  be  hunting  a  job  in  a  country  town.  The  boys  who 
were  worth  anything  were  all  placed  by  that  time — many 
of  them  were  already  well  settled  down  and  heading 
families.  For  two  years  this  boy  milked  the  cows  and 
hunted  for  the  kind  of  job  he  wanted.  Then  he  put 
his  diploma  away  and  went  out  to  take  what  he  could 
get. 

The  best  that  he  could  find  was  what  no  one  else 
seemed  to  want — a  job  collecting  tolls  on  a  canal.  It  was 
the  kind  of  a  job  well  suited  to  a  decrepit  old  man;  the 


2 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


traffic  was  small  and  the  bookkeeping  was  elemental — 
just  the  sort  of  a  place  for  one  who  was  about  to  die  to 
crawl  into.  Nothing  could  raise  the  salary;  there  was 
no  post  ahead  to  be  promoted  to.  It  was  not  necessary 
for  the  canal  authorities  to  pay  more  than  a  bare  living 
wage,  for  a  collector  needed  to  be  just  barely  alive  to  do 
all  that  was  required  of  him. 

The  boy  who  slipped  into  this  quiet  backwater  of  life 
was  John  Henry  Patterson — a  boy  who  could  not  find 
himself — who  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  a  surging 
curiosity  that  wanted  to  go  through  everything  and  find 
everything.  At  twenty-five  he  saw  his  whole  energy 
caged  in  a  blind-alley  job  which  asked  of  him  not  more 
than  a  fraction  of  what  a  cash  register  can  do  to-day. 

The  salary  was  not  enough  to  live  on.  The  exertion, 
mental  and  physical,  was  not  enough  to  keep  the  restless 
lad  alive.  He  looked  for  a  side  line.  In  a  few  months 
he  hung  out  a  “Coal  and  Wood”  sign — although  he  had 
neither  wood  nor  coal.  He  got  a  few  orders  and  took  them 
to  a  local  dealer  to  be  filled.  He  made  a  personal  affair  of 
every  order  and  those  who  ordered  from  him  once  came 
back  to  order  from  him  again.  It  was  not  a  whirlwind 
business — not  enough  to  justify  giving  up  the  five  hun¬ 
dred  dollars  a  year  net  that  the  canal  paid  him.  His 
brothers,  Stephen  and  Frank,  likewise  being  unable  to 
find  jobs,  came  to  help  out  on  the  coal  and  together  the 
three  of  them  managed  to  find  money  enough  to  lay  in 
a  small  stock  of  coal  and  wood  and  eventually  to  own  a 
delivery  wagon.  But  it  was  not  until  six  years  later  that 
the  Patterson  coal  partnership  decided  that  the  ten  dol¬ 
lars  a  week  from  the  canal  was  not  so  important  a  financial 
item  as  to  warrant  dividing  John’s  attention.  They 
found  it  hard  to  give  up  a  ten-dollar-a-week  certainty.  He 


IN  GENERAL 


3 


gave  up  the  canal  job  and  plunged  into  the  coal  business. 
Six  years  as  a  toll  collector  had  not  broken  his  spirit. 

In  another  eight  years  the  brothers  had  about  half  the 
retail  coal  business  of  Dayton  and  an  active  interest  in 
several  coal  mines.  They  were  prosperous  in  a  small¬ 
town  way — their  methods  of  doing  business  were  far 
ahead  of  those  of  their  competitors.  They  were  in  a  fair 
way,  not  to  become  rich,  but  to  become  soundly  well- 
to-do  and  eventually  pillars  of  the  community.  And  if 
John  H.  Patterson  had  done  what  any  ordinary  man  would 
do — decide  that  he  had  made  a  place  for  himself  in  the 
world  and  thereafter  play  safe — there  would  be  no  reason 
for  writing  this  biography.  His  passing  would  have  been 
an  affair  of  a  local  news  note,  a  funeral  sermon,  and  a 
tombstone. 

But  it  was  not  in  the  nature  of  John  H.  Patterson  to  be 
satisfied  with  anything.  His  energy,  his  curiosity,  his 
desire  to  do  something  in  a  big  way,  were  not  dulled  by 
years  of  drudgery.  The  years  rather  served  to  resolve 
his  visions  into  a  desperation  for  accomplishment.  There 
were  a  host  of  things  that  he  wanted  to  do,  but  to  do  them 
he  first  had  to  have  money  and  power.  He  did  not  then 
or  ever  after  think  of  money  and  power  as  an  end  in 
themselves.  He  wanted  to  serve  in  a  big  way — it  was 
not  in  him  to  be  a  high  private  in  the  rear  ranks.  He 
wanted  to  serve  as  a  field  marshal  serves  his  country. 
His  people  thought  him  full  of  crazy  notions.  They  were 
principally  anxious  that  he  should  not  get  the  chance 
to  make  a  fool  of  himself.  He  did  not  seem  to  revere 
precedents  or  even  local  wise  men  as  a  man  of  his  age 
ought  to.  That  was  not  an  imaginative  community. 
And  also  he  had  a  way  of  not  counting  the  cost — if  he 
wanted  to  do  something,  he  did  it  and  checked  up  on  the 


4 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


cost  afterward.  And  he  was  so  everlastingly  on  the  job 
that  the  other  brothers,  unless  they  worked  in  day  and 
night  shifts,  could  not  always  have  an  eye  on  him.  They 
never  sensed  that  John’s  treasury  raids  fitted  out  expe¬ 
ditions  that  brought  back  more  than  he  had  taken  away. 
They  lived  in  terror  lest  John  should  ruin  them.  They — 
and  all  Dayton  with  them — would  have  laughed  de¬ 
risively  if  you  had  told  them  that  he  had  made  them  in 
spite  of  themselves.  But  John  went  his  own  course, 
putting  through  his  ideas — peaceably  when  he  could  and 
less  peaceably  when  he  could  not — and  looking  for  a 
chance  to  do  something  bigger. 

The  opportunity  to  serve  in  a  larger  way  came  to  him 
well  disguised.  An  agent  showed  to  him  a  rude  machine 
called  a  “cash  register,”  which  by  keys  that  punched 
holes  in  a  paper  tape  compelled  a  store  clerk  to  record 
the  cash  he  took  in.  The  Patterson  brothers  tried  one 
in  their  mining  store  and  changed  a  regular  loss  into  a 
regular  profit.  They  tried  one  in  their  retail  coal  office 
and  caught  a  considerable  leak.  The  machine  was  made 
by  the  National  Manufacturing  Company  of  Dayton  and 
that  company  having  decided  to  increase  its  capital  from 
twelve  thousand  dollars  to  fifteen  thousand,  the  three 
Patterson  brothers  took  all  the  new  stock.  This  was  in 
1883;  the  statement  for  the  year  was  issued  early  in  1884 
and  it  showed  that  the  company  had  lost  money.  The 
Pattersons  tried  to  sell  their  stock  and  they  managed  to 
get  rid  of  all  but  twenty-two  shares  and  for  these  they 
could  find  no  buyer. 

The  company  was  the  joke  of  the  town.  John  H. 
had  tired  of  the  coal  business — he  wanted  something  new 
and  bigger.  He  sold  out  to  his  brother  Stephen  and  went 
West  to  see  about  buying  a  ranch  or  a  fruit  orchard. 


IN  GENERAL 


5 


He  knew  about  cattle  raising  and  farming — knew  more 
about  them  than  about  anything  else.  He  came  back 
again  in  November  convinced  that  farming  was  not  for 
him  and  immediately  bought  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
National  Manufacturing  Company  for  sixty-five  hundred 
dollars — which  was  within  a  few  thousands  of  all  the 
money  that  he  had.  He  bought  impulsively — he  thought 
the  cash  register  was  a  good  thing.  And  the  moment 
the  sale  got  around,  Patterson  was  the  butt  of  Dayton. 
He  repented  just  as  impulsively  as  he  had  bought;  the 
morning  after  the  contract  was  drawn  he  went  to  the 
seller  offering  first  one  thousand  dollars  and  then  two 
thousand  dollars  to  get  out  of  the  bargain.  The  seller 
replied  that  he  would  not  take  the  stock  back  as  a  gift. 

Such  was  the  setting  of  John  H.  Patterson’s  oppor¬ 
tunity.  He  kept  his  grasp  on  his  opportunity  because  he 
could  not  let  go.  In  December  he  changed  the  name  of 
the  company  to  the  National  Cash  Register  Company. 
He  was  forty-one  years  old.  He  was  beginning  business 
all  over  again  with  every  cent  he  owned  in  a  company 
making  a  product  that  apparently  no  one  wanted — a 
company  with  a  continuous  record  of  failure.  And  Pat¬ 
terson  was  neither  a  manufacturer  nor  a  salesman.  But 
he  did  not  again  try  to  get  out  of  his  bargain ;  instead  he 
made  the  cash  register  his  life. 

From  that  moment  until  the  moment  of  his  death  he 
saw  the  world  in  terms  of  the  cash  register.  He  believed 
that  his  machine  would  make  the  whole  world  at  least 
financially  honest.  He  thought  in  terms  of  the  good  that 
he  could  do  to  the  buyer  of  his  machine  and  not  of  the 
profit  that  he  would  make  for  himself.  The  profit  be¬ 
came  and  always  remained  a  means  to  an  end.  Years 
afterward,  when  the  company  was  making  enormous 


6 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


profits,  Mr.  Patterson  for  a  long  time  refused  to  permit 
more  than  a  2-per-cent,  dividend  to  be  paid.  He  never 
allowed  more  than  6  per  cent.  One  of  the  reasons  for  his 
success  was  that  from  the  very  first  he  had  objectives 
larger  than  his  business — he  never  worked  for  money  as 
money.  He  did  not  believe  in  sharp  shooting  for  profits. 
He  wanted  his  money  to  come  as  an  incident  to  service. 
One  finds  that  men  do  not  create  success — whatever  the 
definition  of  the  moment  may  be — unless  they  believe  in 
themselves  and  in  what  they  are  doing. 

And,  had  not  Patterson  believed,  he  would  never  have 
carried  that  company  through.  He  was  alone  in  the 
belief  that  it  could  be  carried  through  and  during  all 
his  life  he  remained  alone.  He  saw  what  he  saw;  and  he 
refused  to  change  the  image  in  his  mind  because  others 
also  could  not  see  it.  He  gave  up  everything  that  might 
even  remotely  interfere  with  the  motive  of  his  life;  he 
came  to  look  upon  his  body  only  as  a  carrier  for  his  spirit — 
to  be  treated  not  as  it  might  desire  but  as  would  best 
make  it  carry  his  spirit.  If  John  H.  Patterson  had  lived 
in  the  days  of  the  early  Christians,  he  would  be  known 
to-day  as  the  founder  of  some  austere  teaching  order 
pressing  ever  onward.  It  just  so  happened  that  he  lived 
in  a  different  time — and  he  has  not  been  dead  long  enough 
to  take  on  a  heroic  mould.  Some  day  we  shall  recognize 
that  all  the  servants  of  mankind  did  not  write  books  or 
preach  sermons  or  fight  battles — some  of  them  made  ma¬ 
chines  that  made  life  easier.  Men  do  not  do  big  things 
in  dilettante  fashion — they  put  their  whole  selves  in  their 
work,  making  all  else  subordinate.  They  unflinchingly 
accept  martyrdom.  They  are  willing  to  be  jeered  at — 
stoned  with  words — to  suffer  to  the  utmost  if  thereby  they 
can  spread  their  ideas.  The  cheap  man  thinks  of  business 


AT  TWELVE  YEARS  OF  AGE 


AT  ABOUT  TWENTY  YEARS  OF  AGE 


IN  GENERAL 


7 


as  an  affair  of  making  money.  The  fine  man  thinks  of  it 
as  a  service  that  demands  his  all.  If  he  succeeds  in  es¬ 
tablishing  his  cause,  he  gets  money,  but  by  that  time  the 
money  has  become  meaningless  to  him. 

It  is  necessary  to  get  this  background  in  mind  to  under¬ 
stand  John  H.  Patterson — or  to  use  the  lessons  that  he  so 
abundantly  put  into  teaching.  For  everything  that  he 
did  had  an  objective — an  objective  which  grew  larger  as 
he  grew,  until  at  the  end  it  was  a  very  large  objective 
indeed.  It  had  to  be  a  large  objective  because  he  held 
as  his  primary  principle:  “Good  enough  is  the  enemy 
of  all  progress.”  Therefore,  whatever  he  did  was  but  a 
step  toward  doing  something  bigger  and  better.  He  had 
more  work  planned  ahead  when  he  died  at  seventy-eight 
than  when  he  began  at  forty-one.  Many  of  these  plans 
had  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  his  own  business  or  with 
business  in  general;  but  he  used  those  terms  in  thinking 
of  them.  He  thought  that  well-paid  wage  earners  and 
executives,  living  in  good  houses  and  working  in  pleasant 
shops  and  offices,  would  do  better  work  than  ill-paid  men 
living  and  working  in  squalor.  Therefore  he  brought 
about  these  things. 

He  thought  that  these  people  would  do  better  work  if 
they  lived  in  a  clean,  well-governed  community,  so  he 
started,  and  to  a  large  degree  succeeded  in  completing, 
the  making  over  of  the  City  of  Dayton.  He  carried 
precisely  the  same  ideas  by  degrees  into  the  state  and 
the  federal  governments  and  finally  into  the  assembly 
of  nations.  The  breakdown  that  finally  brought  death 
came  through  a  fortnight  of  work  at  the  1920  meeting  of 
the  League  of  Nations  at  Geneva.  He  thought  that  the 
United  States  was  going  to  suffer  by  not  being  represented. 
It  may  seem  odd  to  relate  the  whole  world  to  a  single 


8 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


business,  but  that  was  Mr.  Patterson’s  elemental  way; 
and  he  was  right — for  he  knew,  although  he  never  quite 
expressed  it,  that  politics  is  but  a  pastime  unless  it 
results  in  the  provision  of  a  greater  share  of  goods  for  the 
people.  There  was  only  one  place  where  he  could  help 
to  provide  more  goods  and  that  was  in  his  own  factory. 
It  was  not  selfishness,  but  selflessness  that  led  him  so 
unerringly  to  cut  through  the  buncombe  and  put  his  finger 
on  the  only  reason  for  government.  If  the  factory  for 
the  moment  could  not  provide  goods,  then  it  could  do 
something  else — as  when  he  poured  out  a  million  dollars 
for  relief  work  in  the  Dayton  flood  and  had  it  charged  as 
a  company  expense.  He  might  have  spent  two  millions 
but  it  just  so  happened  that  in  the  limited  time  he  could 
get  rid  of  only  a  million.  He  used  to  be  fond  of  saying, 
about  much  that  he  did  which  apparently  had  no  concern 
with  business:  “It  pays.”  And  I  have  heard  it  said  that 
he  thus  lowered  the  level  of  all  that  he  did — that  he  should 
have  been  motivated  by  pure  philanthropy.  He  said: 
“It  pays”  because  he  saw  further  than  his  critics.  He 
saw  that  philanthropy  was  only  a  way  of  painting  over 
rotten  wood;  he  wanted  to  keep  the  wood  from  rotting. 

He  detested  charity  as  such.  He  detested  it  as  much 
as  he  did  the  pride  of  purse  out  of  which  charity  springs. 
This  may  not  seem  to  have  much  to  do  with  business, 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  has  a  tremendous  amount  to  do 
with  business,  for  if  business  is  the  provision  of  needful 
goods,  then  we  have  to  cultivate  the  power  to  absorb  these 
goods  as  well  as  the  power  to  produce  them.  Paupers  do 
not  buy.  In  the  later  years  of  his  life,  Mr.  Patterson  had 
a  personal  income  of  about  half  a  million  dollars.  He 
could  as  easily  have  had  double  that  income  but  he  pre¬ 
ferred  to  have  the  money  stay  in  his  institution.  He  made 


IN  GENERAL 


9 


no  investments  of  any  kind.  He  had  a  modest  house 
overlooking  Dayton  and  a  small  camp  in  the  Adirondacks. 
He  bought  a  great  tract  of  land  with  the  idea  in  view  of 
selling  home  sites  to  those  who  worked  with  him  and  of 
providing  a  natural  park  where  the  people  of  the  city 
might  get  fresh  air.  Eventually  he  gave  the  tract  to  the 
city.  He  probably  spent  less  money  on  himself  than  any 
rich  man  in  the  country.  The  remainder  of  his  income 
he  gave  away  and  most  of  it  he  gave  away  personally  with 
the  sole  idea  of  making  better  citizens,  or,  as  he  liked  to 
put  it,  “making  better  business.”  He  was  intent  on 
helping,  not  on  pauperizing,  and  he  was  so  intent  on  help¬ 
ing  that  often  he  insisted  on  minutely  regulating  the  lives 
of  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  He  was  per¬ 
fectly  willing  to  override  the  objections  of  the  individual 
if  he  believed  that  the  individual’s  objections  were  not  of 
moment  and  were  against  the  best  interests  both  of  the 
individual  and  of  society.  He  thought  there  was  only 
one  best  way  of  doing  anything  and  that  everyone  ought 
to  be  taught  that  best  way  and  then  forced  to  follow  it. 
For  instance,  one  day  on  the  beach  at  Mentone  he  came 
across  a  group  of  poor  children  playing  in  the  sand.  He 
said  to  his  companion: 

“These  children  have  nothing  to  play  with.  They  do 
not  know  how  to  play.  Here  is  twenty  dollars.  Go  up 
to  the  village  and  buy  some  buckets  and  shovels  and 
things.  And  then  this  afternoon  find  a  kindergarten 
teacher  and  pay  her  for  six  months.  These  children  must 
be  taught  how  to  have  a  good  time.” 

And  if  you  had  asked  him  about  it,  he  probably  would 
have  said: 

“It  pays.  Those  children  will  not  grow  up  into  good 
customers  unless  they  learn  how  to  play.” 


10 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


The  business  that  John  H.  Patterson  took  over  was  a 
fighting  business.  In  the  early  eighties  the  hard-shell 
type  of  business  man  predominated.  The  big  men  of  the 
country,  aside  from  a  few  retailers  and  makers  of  necessi¬ 
ties,  were  converters  of  raw  material  or  railroad  men. 
And  everyone  had  been  through  the  long,  hard  pull  that 
began  with  the  collapse  of  the  1873  Panic.  Advertising 
was  announcing.  Selling  was  acquaintanceship.  Manu¬ 
facturing  was  the  science  of  getting  men  to  work  for  little 
pay.  Excepting  in  the  textiles,  most  manufacturing 
operations  were  done  more  by  hand  than  by  machine. 
There  was  no  office  machinery  at  all — the  typewriter  was 
known  but  it  was  scarcely  used.  Even  the  telephone 
was  a  rarity.  The  card  index,  the  filing  cabinet,  the 
loose-leaf  ledger  were  all  but  unknown.  Of  course  there 
were  no  calculating  machines.  And  Mr.  Patterson  went 
ahead  in  the  belief  that  he  could  prove  his  machine — 
prove  it  to  men  who  were  thoroughly  fixed  in  their  ways. 
For  there  had  been  no  particular  change  in  office  methods 
for  a  century.  The  store  or  office  of  1884  was  not  so 
different  from  the  store  or  office  of  1784  as  it  is  from  the 
store  or  office  of  to-day.  Patterson  did  not  know  enough 
about  business  to  realize  what  was  impossible.  He  struck 
out  alone. 

He  saw  that  there  was  no  demand.  He  really  did  not 
have  to  see  it — everyone  told  him.  Therefore,  he  started 
in  to  educate  to  create  a  demand.  Out  of  that  grew  his 
whole  theory  of  advertising — for  advertising  had  not 
been  previously  used  to  sell.  It  had  been  used  to  an¬ 
nounce  that  goods  were  on  hand  ready  to  be  bought. 
He  regarded  advertising  as  a  fundamental  expenditure. 
He  was  the  father  of  modern  advertising. 

He  realized  that  his  own  people  had  to  see  his  machine 


IN  GENERAL 


II 


as  he  saw  it  before  they  could  explain  it  to  others.  And 
to  this  end  he  developed  a  remarkable  system  of  simple 
teaching — of  teaching  through  the  eye.  He  made  little 
dramas  of  everything  that  he  wanted  to  teach — sometimes 
presenting  them  on  paper  and  sometimes  on  an  actual 
stage. 

He  knew  that  his  machines  would  not  be  bought — that 
after  the  prospect  had  been  educated,  he  still  had  to  be 
sold  to.  And  therefore  he  invented  salesmanship — as 
distinct  from  order  taking.  He  brought  salesmanship 
to  an  intensive  scientific  basis.  And  thereby  he  changed 
the  whole  character  of  American  business. 

He  recognized  that  the  best  salesmen  were  contented 
customers  and  so  he  made  it  a  primary  principle  that  any 
man  who  bought  must  not  only  be  satisfied  with  the  pur¬ 
chase  but  must  be  kept  satisfied  by  being  instructed  not 
only  how  to  use  his  machine,  but  also  how  to  make  money 
out  of  it.  Considering  his  ideals,  any  other  course  was 
impossible  to  him. 

He  knew  that  to  carry  on  an  intensive  programme,  the 
men  around  him  had  to  be  continually  working,  not  only 
to  their  utmost,  but  also  in  harmony.  He  believed  that 
men  work  hardest  to  gain  a  reward  or  to  avoid  punishment. 
Therefore  he  paid  salaries  and  commissions  that  at  the 
time  were  unheard  of.  He  deliberately  overpaid — and  as 
deliberately  overpunished.  He  never  kept  a  man — no 
matter  what  his  value — after  that  man  came  to  consider 
himself  indispensable.  But  also  he  never  fired  a  man 
without  making  a  financial  recompense — sometimes  a 
most  extravagant  recompense.  As  Alvan  Macauley,  the 
president  of  the  Packard  Motor  Car  Company,  put  it  to 
me: 

“For  a  great  many  years  Mr.  Patterson  conducted  the 


12 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


greatest  business  university  in  America.  I  am  not  sure 
it  was  his  intention  to  do  just  that.  His  methods  at¬ 
tracted  ambitious  and  capable  men  from  all  parts  of  the 
country  to  his  organization.  When  he  had  secured  them, 
by  the  example  of  his  tremendous  energy  and  initiative, 
and  through  his  unprecedented  driving  ability,  he  forced 
them  very  rapidly — either  to  the  front  or  out  the  back 
door.  The  men  who  survived  were  fit.  Few  survived. 
Most  of  them  were  unable  to  stand  the  pace  to  maintain 
their  popularity  with  the  Big  Chief.  But  all  who  went 
through  his  industrial  university  came  out  of  it  better 
men,  abler  men,  and  the  country  is  dotted  with  leaders 
who  secured  a  new  conception  of  business  possibilities 
from  John  H.  Patterson.” 

He  thought  that  pooled  knowledge  was  better  than 
scattered  knowledge  and  hence  he  invented  the  conference 
idea  and  carried  it  to  extraordinary  lengths.  And  so  he 
charted  and  subdivided  the  duties  of  the  people  who 
worked  with  him  as  to  produce  what  we  know  to-day  as 
a  “business  organization.” 

He  considered  his  machine  as  an  instrument  of  pre¬ 
cision — as  it  later  came  to  be.  And  therefore  he  brought 
about  working  conditions  that  would  lead  to  precise  work. 

And  finally,  he  knew  that  to  carry  out  his  ideas  he 
must  guard  against  arriving  at  a  point  beyond  which  it  did 
not  seem  necessary  to  go — against  arriving  at  a  condition 
of  static  contentment.  He  used  to  say  often  that  if  he 
had  to  go  from  Dayton  to  New  York  in  less  time  than  re¬ 
quired  by  the  express  train  a  new  method  would  have  to 
be  devised  for  getting  him  there.  He  always  wanted  to 
do  everything  more  expeditiously  than  any  one  else  could 
do  it.  Therefore  he  kept  his  whole  business  in  flux — he 
was  always  working  on  a  programme  extending  at  least 


IN  GENERAL 


13 


five  years  ahead.  Every  idea  that  seemed  to  have  merit 
was  tested.  It  was  axiomatic  that  everything  being  done 
by  his  company  was  to  the  end  of  preparing  to  do  it  better. 

He  went  incessantly  from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the 
other  hunting  for  new  ideas.  During  the  last  ten  years  of 
his  life — that  is,  between  sixty-eight  and  seventy-eight — he 
travelled  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  miles. 
He  read  or  had  read  for  him  every  business  publication; 
if  he  found  good  ideas  in  a  book  or  magazine  article,  he 
bought  hundreds  of  copies  and  sent  them  to  his  executives. 
He  was  always  learning  and  he  expected  everyone  about 
him  to  be  learning. 

These  principles  of  his  did  not  come  in  a  day  and  neither 
did  they  develop  from  prosperity.  The  National  Cash 
Register  Company,  as  one  sees  it  to-day,  is  a  tremendous 
institution  with  a  financial  foundation  hewn  deep  into 
the  solid  rock.  Many  a  man  acquires  his  principles  after 
he  has  acquired  his  money.  Patterson  acquired  his  suc¬ 
cess  because  of  his  principles.  They  were  reasoned  out 
of  the  bitterest  of  experiences.  For  nothing  came  easily 
to  him;  during  the  first  ten  years  of  the  company  there 
was  never  a  moment  when  he  could  have  paid  his  debts. 
The  only  market  during  those  early  years  was  the  saloon 
market.  His  machine — the  machine  out  of  which  he 
hoped  to  do  so  much — was  just  a  contraption  for  catching 
light-fingered  clerks. 

Compare  the  product  of  to-day  and  its  uses  with  the 
old  “thief -catcher5 5  period  and  you  will  gain  some  idea 
not  only  of  the  difficulty  and  the  scope  of  Mr.  Patterson’s 
task,  but  how  effective  were  his  methods  of  education. 
He  had  continually  to  educate,  uneducate,  and  reeducate. 

And  bear  in  mind  that  all  of  this  was  brought  about — 
the  great  company  was  brought  about — step  by  step  and 


14 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


by  methods  which,  although  they  sound  pretentious  in 
generalization,  were  exquisitely  simple.  And  they  were 
paid  for  not  out  of  some  great  windfall  fund  but  out  of 
moneys  that  they  themselves  generated.  Mr.  Patterson’s 
story  is  not  one  of  pushing  an  invention  through  great 
expenditures  of  capital.  He  did  not  even  have  a  real 
invention  to  start  with — he  had  only  an  idea  worked  into 
a  crude  patented  form.  He  had  to  develop  it  on  earnings 
and  on  borrowed  money.  He  had  to  sell  his  idea  first 
to  borrow  money  and  then  to  make  sales  to  pay  off  the 
money  he  had  borrowed.  His  sole  collateral  was  his  own 
faith  in  his  idea.  It  is  all  an  affair  of  little  things  com¬ 
bining  to  make  a  big  thing. 

He  did  little  things  in  an  unusual  way — in  a  way  to  make 
them  big.  Always  he  went  to  extremes.  If  he  had  an 
unusual  idea  to  put  over — as,  say,  the  standardizing  of 
salesmen’s  demonstrations,  which  at  the  time  was  bitterly 
fought  by  the  salesmen — he  would  insist  on  the  letter- 
perfect  following  of  methods  which  he  knew  perfectly 
well  the  salesmen  could  not  follow.  He  asked  the  sales¬ 
men  to  do  twice  as  much  as  he  expected  them  to  do,  know¬ 
ing  that  they  would  thereby  be  carried  on  to  the  point 
where  he  really  wanted  them  to  be — that  he  would  at 
least  get  something,  where  if  he  asked  moderately  he 
would  probably  get  nothing.  He  staged  every  demon¬ 
stration  and  left  nothing  to  chance.  If  he  wanted  to  be 
interrupted  by  questions  before  a  convention  or  a  factory 
meeting,  he  arranged  for  the  interruptions  in  advance. 
For  instance,  in  a  meeting  where  he  was  trying  to  drive 
home  the  importance  of  speaking  in  simple,  exact  lan¬ 
guage,  he  hesitated  to  find  a  word  and  in  his  apparent 
confusion  he  snapped: 

4 'Will  somebody  give  me  the  word  I  want?” 


IN  GENERAL 


15 


Somebody  did,  and  he  tossed  him  a  twenty-dollar  gold 
piece.  It  was  not  necessary  further  to  demonstrate  the 
value  of  language  to  that  meeting. 

The  factory  was  having  trouble  getting  production; 
Mr.  Patterson  called  a  meeting  of  the  whole  force.  As  he 
stood  on  the  platform  a  line  of  men  filed  in  carrying  heavy 
sacks.  It  was  the  weekly  payroll  in  gold  and  silver. 
They  dumped  it  into  a  heap  on  the  platform  and  then  Mr. 
Patterson  started  to  explain  where  the  money  came  from 
and  how  if  each  did  not  do  his  part  there  could  be  no 
heap  of  money  to  distribute.  In  another  meeting  he 
began,  as  was  his  habit,  calling  on  men  here  and  there 
through  the  audience  to  speak.  One  man  got  up  and 
started : 

“I  am  not  much  of  a  speechmaker  .  .  .” 

“Then  sit  down  again,”  interrupted  Mr.  Patterson. 

On  one  occasion  he  was  riding  in  a  cold  Pullman.  He 
asked  the  conductor  to  discover  why  the  car  was  cold. 
The  man  launched  on  a  long  explanation,  the  general 
trend  of  which  was  to  show  that  it  was  not  his  fault.  Mr. 
Patterson  did  not  see  how  the  explanation  was  going  to 
heat  the  car.  He  broke  in : 

“Let  us  say  it  is  all  my  fault.  That  is  out  of  the  way 
now.  What  can  you  do  about  heating  this  car?” 

The  business  was  a  pushing,  driving  business.  It  had 
to  be,  else  cash  registers  could  not  be  sold.  It  had  to  be 
hammer  and  tongs  all  the  while  and  there  could  not  be 
even  a  suggestion  that  anything  was  impossible  or  that 
the  time  in  which  to  do  anything  was  too  limited.  He 
took  a  thousand  ways  to  drive  away  the  thought  of  im¬ 
possibility.  He  held  that  any  sum  of  money  was  well 
spent  if  only  it  served  to  impress  on  the  people  that  all 
things  were  possible.  About  three  o’clock  one  afternoon, 


16 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


riding  by  Welfare  Hall  on  his  familiar  white  horse,  he 
called  to  his  general  manager: 

“Have  this  place  ready  to  use  as  a  riding  academy  by 
six  o’clock  to-morrow  morning.” 

The  building  was  then  fitted  up  as  a  dining  room.  The 
general  manager  did  not  tell  him  that  the  time  was  too 
short,  that  he  could  not  get  men,  and  so  forth.  He 
rushed  men  into  the  place.  They  worked  all  night,  and 
when  Mr.  Patterson  rode  down  at  six  o’clock  the  next 
morning,  not  only  had  the  floor  been  taken  out  and  tan 
bark  put  in,  but  every  trace  of  rubbish  had  been  removed. 
The  work  cost  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  dollars  and  the 
place  was  used  only  once  as  a  riding  academy.  In  a  few 
months  it  was  as  quickly  transformed  into  a  dining  hall 
again. 

That  was  just  one  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  ways  of  making 
an  unusual  job  to  see  if  the  people  could  rise  to  it. 

He  could  do  big  things  and  he  could  do  little  things. 
He  could  be  very  great  and  he  could  be  very  petty.  A 
man  never  knew  whether  he  was  going  to  be  rewarded 
or  fired.  Sometimes  Mr.  Patterson  would  take  a  man, 
shower  him  with  compliments,  increase  his  salary,  and  in 
the  next  week  fire  him  without  an  explanation.  One 
vice-president  who  was  thus  fired  asked  for  an  explana¬ 
tion.  Mr.  Patterson  told  him: 

“No,  I  won’t  explain  anything  to  you,  because  if  I 
started  to  do  that  I  might  take  you  back  again.” 

For  a  season  he  grew  very  suspicious  of  men  who  used 
butter  and  pepper.  Again,  he  discharged  men  on  the  ad¬ 
vice  of  an  employee  who  claimed  to  be  able  to  read  faces. 

No  man  could  ever  tell  what  Mr.  Patterson  considered 
important  or  unimportant,  for  he  had  a  most  remarkable 
memory  for  detail.  He  had  no  scale  of  relative  impor- 


1 


IN  GENERAL 


17 


$ 

tance.  He  kept  the  big  balls  and  the  little  balls  all  up  in 
the  air  at  once.  He  held  that  nothing  was  too  small  to 
be  done  well  and  although  he  could  not  supervise  every 
detail,  he  got  around  to  every  detail  at  some  time  or  other 
and  established  its  rules.  And  the  man  looking  after 
those  details  never  knew  when  Mr.  Patterson  would  land 
in  his  department — for  he  never  announced  his  coming 
in  advance.  And  he  was  as  apt  as  not  to  come  in  the 
middle  of  the  night  just  to  see  in  what  condition  a  man 
left  his  desk  and  affairs  at  the  end  of  the  day.  He  could 
keep  everything  in  his  mind  at  once. 

When  the  Dayton  flood  was  receding  and  Mr.  Patter¬ 
son  had  been  night  and  day  directing  the  relief,  a  chemist 
who  had  been  marooned  on  the  other  side  of  town  re¬ 
ported  for  duty. 

“I  have  managed  to  get  here,  Mr.  Patterson,”  he  said. 

Have  you  anything  for  me  to  do?” 

“Yes,”  answered  Mr.  Patterson.  “You  remember  the 
minister’s  wife  who  used  to  live  down  below  there?  We 
got  her  out  and  she  is  in  a  house  up  on  the  hill.  Just 
before  this  flood  came,  I  was  talking  to  her  about  how  we 
could  use  alfalfa.  Will  you  go  up  and  continue  that  con¬ 
versation  and  report  back  to  me?” 

There  was  nothing  of  the  machine  in  Mr.  Patterson. 
He  was  human  in  his  frailties  and  again  he  was  unhuman. 
At  every  point  he  was  like  the  average  man  and  yet  unlike 
him.  He  was  a  continual  contradiction  of  himself. 

In  no  sense  a  business  man,  he  was  the  founder  of  most 
of  the  practices  which  distinguish  modern  American  busi¬ 
ness  from  all  other  business  in  the  world.  Not  a  salesman, 
he  was  the  founder  of  modern  salesmanship.  Not  a 
speaker,  he  was  among  the  most  effective  of  public  dem¬ 
onstrators.  Not  a  financier,  he  was  the  chief  exponent 


18 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


of  getting  money  by  spending  money  and  yet  not  over¬ 
reaching.  Not  a  manufacturer,  he  was  the  originator 
of  the  modern  American  factory.  Not  a  judge  or  a 
picker  of  men,  he  was  the  father  of  organized  business 
and  the  developer  of  more  business  leaders  than  any  other 
man  who  ever  lived.  Not  a  man  of  commanding  per¬ 
sonality,  he  was  a  rare  leader  of  men,  equally  sure  in 
threatened  defeat  or  in  expected  victory. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  tell  the  story  of  the  man 
— to  see  how  he  and  his  methods  developed.  And  his 
story  is  more  than  a  story — it  is  a  whole  course  in  business 
building. 


CHAPTER  n 


THE  EARLY  YEARS 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON  believed  that  a  straight  line 
is  the  shortest  distance  between  two  points  and  that 
two  plus  two  make  four — that  a  thing  was  either 
right  or  wrong.  He  would  not  tolerate  a  twilight  zone. 
He  got  that  from  his  father,  a  stern,  exact,  and  exacting, 
unimaginative  Scotch-Irishman,  who  never  forgot  to  say, 
as  he  sent  the  boys  back  to  do  over  a  chore  or  to  give 
an  extra  polish  to  the  back  of  their  shoes  as  they  started 
for  church: 

4 ‘Right  is  right  and  wrong  is  wrong.” 

One  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  favourite  stories  was  of  a  New 
England  school  teacher  named  Eliam  Barney,  who  even¬ 
tually  owned  a  car  shop  in  Dayton.  One  day  Mr.  Barney 
was  inspecting  a  job  that  had  just  been  finished.  He 
turned  to  the  workman  and  asked: 

Seven  times  seven  is  forty-eight,  isn’t  it?” 

No,”  answered  the  man  indignantly. 

Well,  then,”  continued  Barney,  “you  have  made  this 
pretty  nearly  right.  Now  go  ahead  and  make  it  exactly 
right.” 

At  another  time  Barney  was  about  to  ship  a  train  of  cars 
— he  built  railroad  cars.  Giving  them  a  final  inspection, 
he  noticed  that  a  lock  had  in  it  three  screws  of  one  kind 
and  one  of  another.  He  held  up  the  whole  train  until 
the  proper  screw  was  found  and  put  in. 

“He  wanted  to  teach  them  by  example,”  Mr.  Patterson 


a  i 


(6 


a 


10 


20 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


always  said,  when  telling  of  this  incident,  and  he  told  it 
frequently.  “He  wanted  to  show  that  everything  had  to 
be  right,  and  he  was  the  first  man  in  Dayton  that  had  first- 
class,  up-to-date  methods  of  doing  business.” 

Barney  was  one  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  models.  Another 
was  Adam  Schantz,  a  brewer. 

“He  was  the  greatest  temperance  man  I  ever  knew,” 
said  Mr.  Patterson.  “He  came  from  Germany  where 
they  make  good  beer,  and  he  continued  to  make  the  best 
beer  he  could  until  he  found  out  that  water  was  better 
than  beer.  Then  he  took  the  limestone  out  of  Dayton 
water  and  called  it  ‘Lily  Water.’  He  advertised  it  all 
over  the  country  and  he  made  a  success.  He  took  pride 
in  his  work.  He  would  have  nothing  but  the  best.  He 
used  to  take  me  out  through  the  woods  when  I  was  a  child 
and  tell  me  about  the  flowers  and  trees.  He  was  the 
first  to  tell  me  about  trees  and  flowers.” 

Another  man  whom  Mr.  Patterson  admired  was  “Old 
Man  Bishop,”  one  of  his  professors  at  Miami  University, 
at  Oxford,  Ohio,  where  he  went  to  school  for  a  while. 

“There  we  learned  how  to  teach,”  said  Mr.  Patterson. 
“The  old  man  used  to  teach  by  making  us  teach  each  other. 
He  was  in  a  way  the  founder  of  our  guaranteed-territory 
idea.  I  saw  many  years  later  that  if  an  agent  taught  the 
people  of  a  territory  to  need  cash  registers  it  was  neither 
good  nor  fair  business  to  allow  any  other  agent  to  sell  in 
that  district.  Bishop  was  a  Scotchman,  and  the  Scotch  are 
the  best  teachers  in  the  world  because  they  study  arith¬ 
metic.  They  learn  that  two  and  two  don’t  make  three. 
Bishop  would  point  to  one  man  and  ask  him  a  certain 
question  and  he  would  answer  as  best  he  could.  Then  he 
would  point  to  another  and  another  until  finally  the  right 
boy  had  told  the  right  thing.  Then  Bishop  would  just 


THE  EARLY  YEARS 


21 


smile  and  go  ahead.  That  is  the  only  way  we  knew  that 
the  right  answer  had  been  given.” 

That  is  the  method  Mr.  Patterson  himself  used  in  all 
his  conventions  and  meetings.  It  was  at  the  very 
foundation  of  his  policy  of  pooling  the  company’s  brains. 
As  he  once  said  at  a  convention: 

“We  bring  all  of  you  people  together  and  we  ask  one 
person  and  another  person  to  get  up  and  talk  and  then  we 
ask  for  criticisms  and  suggestions. 

“Now,  why  do  we  do  that?  We  couldn’t  do  that  if  we 
didn’t  have  guaranteed  territories.  You  people  wouldn’t 
be  here  to  teach  others  to  go  into  your  territory  and  sell 
goods  in  your  territory  and  get  all  the  benefit  of  what  you 
know.  You  would  keep  everything  to  yourselves.  Guar¬ 
anteed  territory  prevents  all  that  and  therefore  you  are 
able  to  come  here  and  help  each  other.” 

It  was  on  such  simple,  elemental  common  sense  that 
Mr.  Patterson  based  his  every  action.  He  said: 

“It  pays  to  be  honest,  truthful,  straight — to  say  what 
you  mean  and  mean  what  you  say.” 

No  one  can  possibly  disagree  with  that.  Probably  no 
man  ever  lived  who  did  not  at  some  time  or  other  solemnly 
say  almost  the  same  thing,  but  when  Mr.  Patterson  spoke 
a  truism  it  became  a  rule  of  conduct  which  could  not  be 
deviated  from  in  the  slightest  particular.  He  could  not 
have  said:  “A  good  man  is  honest,  truthful,  straight — he 
says  what  he  means  and  means  what  he  says.”  He  would 
have  taken  that  as  a  mere  abstraction.  He  took  “  It  pays” 
as  a  reason  for  being  honest  and  truthful,  not  because  he 
did  not  appreciate  that  there  were  other  reasons,  but  be¬ 
cause  “It  pays”  are  words  which  any  grade  of  intelligence 
can  understand. 

All  his  reasoning  was  likewise  direct  and  simple.  He 


22 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


reasoned  in  the  syllogisms  of  logic.  For  instance,  the 
whole  cash -register  business  resolved  itself  into  this:  4 
“Every  merchant  must  account  for  cash. 

“The  cash  register  accounts  for  cash. 

“Therefore  every  merchant  needs  a  cash  register.’ ’ 

He  would  reason  from  the  particular  to  the  general  or 
from  the  general  to  the  particular  in  the  precise  manner 
of  the  logicians.  There  were  no  two  ways  about  any 
conclusion — it  was  either  true  or  untrue.  That  is  why 
he  made  changes  so  rapidly — he  would  make  a  swooping 
change  after  an  investigation  of,  say,  one  phase  because, 
as  he  put  it:  “If  I  break  an  egg  at  one  end  and  find  it 
rotten,  there  is  no  use  looking  at  the  other  end.  It  will 
be  rotten,  too.” 

You  will  find  every  fundamental  from  which  he  worked 
grounded  in  his  early  precepts  and  experiences.  The  big 
principles  of  his  business  were  learned  from  ordinary, 
simple  incidents  such  as  happen  to  any  one.  To  Mr. 
Patterson’s  type  of  mind  every  happening  held  some  kind 
of  a  lesson.  He  did  not  originate — he  applied  the  lessons 
drawn  from  one  set  of  circumstances  to  an  entirely  differ¬ 
ent  set  of  circumstances.  He  was  the  finest  of  all  ex¬ 
amples  to  contradict  the  plaintive  “But  my  business  is 
different.”  His  manner  of  thinking  precluded  that  view; 
he  looked  at  the  Pyramids  of  Egypt  not  merely  as  world 
wonders  but  to  see  what  he  could  learn  from  them  to  use 
in  his  own  business.  The  Pyramids  came  to  be  a  part  of 
his  business.  Once  when  he  went  to  a  Yale-Harvard 
football  game  he  came  back  to  the  factory  and  gave  a 
two-hour  talk  on  team  play.  He  told  the  game  in  terms 
of  the  N.  C.  R.  work. 

Take,  for  instance,  his  ancestors.  He  had  an  almost 
Chinese  veneration  for  his  ancestors — but  not  because 


THE  EARLY  YEARS 


23 

they  were  dead.  He  revered  them  as  people  who  had,  by 
their  lives,  taught  something  to  him.  He  studied  them — 
he  found  out  all  he  could  about  them — to  discover  what 
was  in  their  lives  that  he  could  use  in  his.  He  had  some¬ 
thing  of  all  of  his  ancestors  in  him.  He  was  proud  of  his 
ancestors.  When  he  was  fighting  his  battles,  he  liked  to 
think  of  them  fighting  their  battles.  On  the  crest  of  his 
father’s  family  is  “Pro  rege  et  grege ”  (For  king  and  people) 
and  on  that  of  his  mother’s  family  is  “Semper  paratus ” 
(Always  ready).  Those  legends  became  rules  with  him. 
He  thought  of  himself  as  a  pioneer  and  also  as  a  conqueror. 
When,  later  in  life,  he  rode  a  white  horse,  it  was  because 
Napoleon’s  horse  was  white.  You  will  see  this  spirit 
carried  through  everything  that  he  did.  He  held  that  a 
man  could  be  as  much  a  conqueror  in  peace  as  in  war,  and 
although  he  was  thoroughly  democratic  in  insisting  upon 
equal  opportunity  for  all,  he  was  at  heart  an  aristocrat 
going  out  to  fight  and  to  found  a  commercial  kingdom. 

All  his  ancestors  were  fighters.  They  fought  in  the 
War  of  the  Revolution  and  in  every  war  thereafter.  The 
Pattersons,  in  the  person  of  John  Patterson,  whose  grand¬ 
father  had  left  Scotland  in  1640  on  account  of  religious 
persecution  and  settled  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  came  to 
America  sometime  about  1700  and  settled  in  Lancaster, 
Pa.  He  left  a  son,  Robert,  and  his  son,  Francis,  became 
the  father  of  Colonel  Robert  Patterson  who,  of  all  his 
ancestors,  was  the  one  that  John  H.  Patterson  most  talked 
about.  Colonel  Patterson,  his  grandfather,  fought  through 
the  Revolution  and  then,  continuing  as  a  lieutenant  in 
the  service,  he  was  ordered  to  strengthen  the  frontiers  of 
the  colonies  along  the  Kentucky  River.  He  married 
Elizabeth  Lindsay,  a  daughter  of  a  Scotchman  who  settled 
along  the  Conococheague  Mountain  in  Pennsylvania,  and 


24 


JOHN  II.  PATTERSON 


then  proceeded  with  her  across  Pennsylvania  to  Fort  Pitt 
(Pittsburg)  and  down  the  Ohio  River  to  Kentucky.  He 
built  a  log  house  in  Lexington — the  first  in  Lexington. 
This  house  was  removed  some  twenty  years  ago  to  Dayton 
by  Mr.  Patterson.  For  Colonel  Patterson’s  services  in 
the  famous  Clarke  Expedition  into  Illinois,  the  Govern¬ 
ment  gave  him  a  grant  of  land  which  he  located  around 
Lexington.  Later  with  two  associates  he  bought  another 
tract,  which  is  now  the  site  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  They 
called  the  settlement  Losantiville.  Let  John  H.  Patterson 
tell  about  the  Colonel  in  his  own  way — for  he  was  one  of 
his  heroes  and  he  has  shown  to  thousands  of  people  the 
powder-horn,  etched  with  pictures  of  three  Indian  battles, 
that  Colonel  Robert  carried  when  associated  with  Daniel 
Boone.  These  are  stenographic  notes  made  at  an  N.  C.  R. 
convention  ten  years  ago,  when  Mr.  Patterson  went  more 
extensively  into  his  family  history  than  at  any  time  before 
or  since.  It  gives  an  idea  of  his  unending  search  for 
lessons  out  of  the  past  to  use  in  the  present. 

“Now  they  had  battles  in  those  days  to  overcome  the 
savages.  The  land  was  too  valuable  and  the  savages  re¬ 
quired  too  great  an  amount  for  each  person.  It  was 
then  decided  that  one  half  acre  of  ground  was  enough 
for  one  person  to  subsist  on.  They  had  their  battles  and 
their  difficulties  and  we  have  ours.  We  have  ignorance 
and  bad  habits  and  many  other  things  to  fight  in  this 
generation.  I  would  just  as  lief — in  fact,  I  would  rather — 
be  killed  by  a  bullet  or  a  tomahawk  or  a  knife  of  an 
Indian  than  be  killed  by  some  of  the  awful  enemies  of 
humanity. 

“ Does  welfare  work  pay?  Why  did  this  man  come  here 
at  the  battle  of  Blue  Licks  and  put  my  grandfather  on  a 
horse  after  he  had  been  struck  by  a  tomahawk  and  let 


THE  EARLY  YEARS 


25 


him  escape?  That  was  my  earliest  experience,  and  I 
believe  that  welfare  work  pays. 

“Now  this  was  in  1776.  It  occurred  right  through  this 
section  of  the  country.  I  will  tell  you  why  this  man  saved 
my  grandfather’s  life.  A  little  army  of  about  seventy- 
five  men  were  going  out  in  Illinois  to  capture  a  French  fort. 
One  man  named  Reynolds  was  always  swearing  unneces¬ 
sarily.  My  grandfather  told  him  that  if  he  would  not 
swear  until  they  reached  the  fort  he  would  give  him  a  prize. 
Reynolds  took  him  up  on  one  condition — that  the  prize 
would  be  a  quart  of  whiskey. 

“When  they  got  to  the  fort  my  grandfather  had  for¬ 
gotten  about  this  promise,  but  Reynolds  came  up  and 
claimed  his  quart  of  whiskey.  My  grandfather  gave  it 
to  him.  That  act  changed  this  man’s  life.  From  that 
time  forward  he  became  a  member  of  the  church  in  Ken¬ 
tucky  and  was  a  model  man  in  every  way. 

“He  felt  grateful  to  my  grandfather,  and  at  this  battle 
of  Blue  Licks  he  made  up  his  mind  to  save  my  grand¬ 
father’s  life  even  at  the  risk  of  his  own.  My  grandfather 
didn’t  get  the  word  to  retreat,  the  Indians  surprised  and 
attacked  him,  and  he  was  the  last  man  near  the  Indians. 
He  escaped  by  Reynolds  giving  him  his  horse.  An  Indian 
came  up  to  Reynolds  and  he  sat  down  beside  him  on  a  log. 
He  saw  that  there  was  no  powder  in  the  Indian’s  gun  so 
he  stooped  down  and  laced  his  shoe.  He  jumped  up  un¬ 
expectedly,  hit  the  Indian  on  the  head,  and  ran  back  to 
the  fort.  These  are  some  of  the  things  that  our  ancestors 
did.  They  went  through  all  this  part  of  the  country — 
Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Indiana. 

“  This  room  was  known  as  Patterson’s  room.  (Showing 
a  picture  of  the  old  log  house.)  It  was  here  that  my  grand¬ 
mother  hid  in  the  loft.  It  was  known  as  Patterson’s  room 


26 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


because  there  was  only  one  room.  It  was  used  for  a  port 
house.  Here  is  the  latch  string.  They  pulled  it  in  at 
night  so  nobody  could  get  in,  and  when  they  said,  ‘The 
latch  string  is  always  out  for  you’  it  meant  you  were  al¬ 
ways  welcome.  I  heard  they  were  going  to  destroy  this 
cabin  so  I  brought  it  over  here  and  restored  it. 

“My  grandfather  left  Kentucky  for  two  reasons — one 
was  because  he  had  gone  security  for  a  man  and  had  to 
sell  all  his  property,  the  other  was  because  he  wanted 
to  teach  his  boys  to  work.  He  couldn’t  teach  them  to 
work  down  South  because  of  the  slaves,  so  he  came  up 
here. 

“Then  he  located  on  this  farm  where  the  N.  C.  R.  now 
stands,  because  he  wanted  to  be  a  manufacturer.  He 
named  the  place  ‘Rubicon.’  After  he  had  bought  it  the 
former  owner  kept  sending  back  for  bushes,  trees,  and 
other  things.  My  grandfather  didn’t  think  it  was  fair, 
so  the  next  time  this  man  sent  his  wagon  to  get  some  more 
bushes  he  turned  the  ox  cart  around  down  at  the  brook, 
which  was  a  boundary,  and  said:  ‘Tell  Cooper  that  this 
is  the  Rubicon,  and  I  don’t  want  his  ox  team  taking  any¬ 
thing  off  this  farm.’  The  farm  was  called  the  Rubicon 
Farm  ever  after. 

“Many  a  time  I  have  worked,  where  this  factory  now 
stands,  cutting  hay  and  ploughing  corn.  When  I  was  a 
little  child  we  carried  food  to  the  harvesters  and  always 
spread  the  tablecloth  under  this  old  elm  tree.  I  remem¬ 
ber  the  German  girl  and  I  walked  from  the  house  over 
the  creek  and  down  under  this  elm  tree  because  in  those 
days  people  thought  they  had  to  have  something  to  keep 
up  their  strength  between  breakfast  and  noon.  This 
lunch  generally  consisted  of  hot  coffee  with  cream  and 
sugar  and  some  kind  of  pie  and  then  they  always  had  to 


THE  EARLY  YEARS 


27 


have  some  kind  of  a  stimulant,  either  whiskey  or  beer, 
usually  whiskey.” 

In  1799  Colonel  Patterson  first  visited  the  Miami  Valley 
and  five  years  later  he  bought  a  large  tract  of  land  south 
of  Dayton  which  had  on  it  a  substantial  log  cabin.  Later 
he  built  a  brick  house,  which  is  still  standing,  west  of 
Brown  Street,  south  of  N.  C.  R.  factory.  The  Colonel 
had  ten  children,  of  whom  Jefferson  Patterson,  born  in 
1801,  was  the  youngest.  In  1833  Jefferson  married  Julia 
Johnson  of  Piqua,  Ohio,  the  daughter  of  Colonel  John 
Johnson,  who  was  the  man  that  first  gained  the  confidence 
of  the  Indians  inhabiting  Ohio  and  who  probably  more 
than  any  other  one  man  was  responsible  for  the  peaceful 
settlement  of  Ohio.  He  was  a  rare  diplomat  and  kept  the 
Indians  on  the  Miami  Valley  from  rising  to  help  the 
British  in  the  War  of  1812.  The  Pattersons  were  fighters; 
the  Johnsons  were  negotiators — but  fighters  when  they 
had  to  be. 

Jefferson  Patterson  and  his  wife  eventually  went  to 
live  on  the  Rubicon  Farm  and  there  John  Henry  was  born 
on  December  13,  1844.  He  was  the  seventh  of  eleven 
children.  But  if  there  is  any  luck  in  the  number  seven, 
John  Patterson’s  came  well  diluted.  His  father  was 
forty-three  and  his  mother  thirty-two  years  old  when  he 
was  born.  The  eldest  brother,  Robert,  was  born  in  1833 
and  died  while  employed  at  work  for  the  company. 
Elizabeth  Jones  was  born  in  1841  and  died  eight  years 
later  of  cholera.  William  Lindsay  was  born  in  1839  and 
Stephen  J.  in  1842.  Following  John  came  Catherine 
Phillips  in  1846,  Francis  J.  in  1849,  Arthur  Stewart  in  1852, 
and  Julia,  afterward  Mrs.  J.  H.  Crane,  in  1857.  Two 
children  died  in  infancy:  John  Johnson  born  in  1835  and 
Rachel  born  in  1837. 


28 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


The  family  was  well  fixed.  Everybody  about  the  place 
had  to  work — which  was  the  principal  reason  why  they 
were  well  fixed.  Jefferson  Patterson  thoroughly  believed 
in  work.  He  was  perfectly  willing  to  set  a  task  for  the 
mere  doing  of  it — which  was  not  John’s  way  at  all.  He 
wanted  to  work  to  an  end.  His  mother  supplied  the  im¬ 
agination  to  the  household.  She  used  to  read  to  John 
from  Washington  Irving’s  tales  of  travel  and  supplied 
the  practical  note  which  he  insisted  upon  by  impressing 
on  him  that  if  he  worked  hard  and  earned  money  he,  too, 
could  go  out  in  the  world  and  travel  and  meet  people. 
Young  Patterson  did  not  like  the  farm — excepting  in 
retrospect.  He  believed  that  a  man  brought  up  on  a 
farm  was  better  than  one  who  had  not  been.  He  said 
that  a  farm  was  the  place  of  places  to  learn  to  work,  and 
later  when  he  came  to  selecting  men  he  never  put  full 
confidence  in  any  man  who  was  not  born  on  a  farm.  If 
he  had  to  choose  between  two  men  for  a  place  and  their 
abilities  were  apparently  equal,  he  would  invariably  select 
the  man  with  farm  experience. 

John  was  a  strong,  sinewy  lad  of  remarkable  endurance 
— all  of  which  he  needed — for,  according  to  his  mother: 
“He  used  to  be  called  at  four  o’clock  in  the  spring,  sum¬ 
mer,  and  fall.  He  had  to  make  his  grandfather’s  fire, 
carry  up  enough  wood  to  last  all  day,  split  kindling  and 
get  it  ready  for  the  night.  After  breakfast  he  would  turn 
the  calves  out,  put  up  his  dinner,  and  go  to  school.  In 
the  evening  he  drove  up  the  calves,  fed  and  bedded  them, 
carried  up  wood  to  fill  the  boxes,  and  after  supper  studied 
lessons.” 

He  went  to  school  in  a  little  schoolhouse  that  stood  on 
the  corner  of  Main  and  Brown  streets  on  the  site  to  which 
he  afterward  transferred  Colonel  Robert’s  cabin  from 


THE  EARLY  YEARS 


29 


Lexington,  Ky.  He  went  on  from  elementary  studies  to 
the  old  Central  High  School  in  Dayton,  from  which  he 
graduated  in  1862.  Then  he  entered  the  Miami  Univer¬ 
sity  at  Oxford.  The  war  was  on.  His  three  brothers 
were  in  the  army.  His  father  died  at  a  session  of  the 
State  Legislature  and  in  1863  John  had  to  come  home  and 
take  care  of  the  farm.  Catherine  died  within  a  month 
of  her  father.  When  President  Lincoln  issued  his  call  for 
volunteers  to  serve  for  a  hundred  days,  John  went  out 
with  the  131st  Ohio  Volunteer  Infantry.  The  regiment  got 
only  as  far  as  Baltimore  and  did  not  see  any  active  service. 
He  was  discharged  in  August,  1864.  The  next  year  he 
entered  Dartmouth  and  in  1867  was  graduated  as  a 
Bachelor  of  Arts.  In  the  meantime,  his  brother  William 
had  died  of  war  injuries. 

Of  Dartmouth  he  said:  4 4 What  I  learned  mostly  was 
what  not  to  do.  They  gave  me  Greek  and  Latin  and 
algebra  and  higher  mathematics  and  Edwards  on  the  Will 
— all  useless.  My  mother  told  me  about  Mr.  Barney 
being  such  a  good  manufacturer  because  he  was  such  a 
good  school  teacher.  I  decided  then  that  I  would  teach 
school  as  a  way  of  becoming  a  good  manufacturer.  I 
spent  three  months  of  my  vacation  teaching  school.  I 
left  Dartmouth  College  and  went  up  in  back  of  the  moun¬ 
tains.  There  I  learned  how  to  make  everything  simple  and 
plain.  I  learned  how  to  use  small  words  and  big  ideas.” 

John  was  not  a  bright  boy  or  a  good  student  in  the 
ordinary  sense.  He,  of  course,  was  not  stupid  but  he 
never  could  discover  the  use  of  knowledge  as  knowledge 
— he  wanted  it  applied  to  something  human.  When  he 
went  to  school  and  college,  teaching  was  very  far  removed 
from  life.  A  learned  man  was  one  who  could  reel  off 
reams  of  poetry  or  who  had  a  vast  fund  of  encyclopaedic 


30 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


knowledge — which  was  not  necessarily  related  to  any¬ 
thing  in  particular.  Mr.  Patterson’s  whole  educational 
programme  in  later  years  was  based  upon  what  the  schools 
and  colleges  failed  to  teach  him  when  he  was  young. 

He  came  home  from  Dartmouth  with  a  strong  prejudice 
against  colleges  and  college  men.  He  never  got  over  that 
prejudice. 

At  home  things  were  much  as  they  had  always  been,  and 
John  just  slipped  back  into  the  old  rut.  He  could  not 
find  a  job  outside.  He  helped  around  the  farm  and  the 
grist  mill  and  for  a  time  ran  the  farm  store.  In  1868  the 
whole  family  came  down  with  a  fever  and  Arthur  Stewart 
died.  John  was  nurse  and  family  head.  The  keeping  of 
accounts  bothered  him.  He  wanted  everything  certain 
but  everything  was  slipshod.  It  might  not  have  bothered 
a  man  who  understood  bookkeeping,  but  John  knew 
nothing  of  account  books  and  was  not  even  quick  at  figur¬ 
ing.  His  was  a  directing  type  of  mind  that  could  plan 
every  detail,  but  could  execute  few  of  them  with  clerical 
neatness.  And  that  type  of  mind  is  very  unhappy  when 
it  has  to  pore  over  petty  detail  tasks.  Everything  irked 
him: 

“If  you  had  been  through  what  I  have  been  through 
on  the  farm!  We  had  a  store  and  we  sold  ham,  generally 
a  side  of  ham  at  a  time;  we  sold  flour,  cornmeal,  sugar,  and 
things  of  that  kind  to  our  tenants  and  people  that  worked 
for  us.  Money  was  scarce.  We  wouldn’t  see  any  for 
some  time.  A  man  would  work  for  us  and  say:  T  want 
some  sugar’;  and  then  I  would  be  eating  my  dinner  and 
some  person  would  say:  ‘Did  you  charge  that  sugar  to 
Souders?’  ‘No,  I  did  not.’  ‘Well,  run  right  away  and 
do  it.’  I  would  like  you  to  see  some  of  the  books  that  we 
charged  it  in !  Often  we  failed  to  charge. 


THE  EARLY  YEARS 


31 


“When  I  think  back  to  the  old  farm  where  I  was  the 
clerk  and  the  proprietor,  too,  you  might  say,  I  know 
there  was  many  a  time  I  failed  to  charge.  A  man  named 
Kramer  kept  an  account  with  my  father.  They  came  to 
settle.  My  father  pulled  out  a  twenty-dollar  gold  piece 
and  gave  it  to  Kramer.  Kramer  said: 

“‘That  is  more  than  you  owe  me.’ 

“My  father  answered:  ‘Well,  just  keep  it  and  I  will  owe 
it  to  you  sometime.’ 

“A  twenty-dollar  gold  piece  meant  so  much.  You 
didn’t  very  often  see  that  much  gold  at  that  time.  When 
my  father  gave  that  gold  to  Kramer,  I  wondered  if  he 
would  charge  him  on  the  books  with  it.  I  have  wondered 
ever  since.  I  often  wonder  how  many  sacks  of  flour  I 
failed  to  charge  because  somebody  called  my  attention 
to  something  else  and  I  would  forget  all  about  it. 

“Often  someone  would  come  in  and  say:  ‘I  will  take  a 
side  of  bacon,’  and  how  I  hated  to  open  the  old  black 
smokehouse  and  climb  up  and  get  a  big  side  of  bacon, 
push  it  off  the  iiail  with  a  stick,  and  let  it  fall  on  the  floor 
so  that  I  wouldn’t  get  that  grease  on  my  clothes.  We  had 
our  things  scattered.  We  put  our  bacon  in  the  smoke¬ 
house,  molasses  in  the  cellar,  sugar  in  the  pantry,  and 
apples  in  one  cellar  ’way  down  below.  We  had  half  a 
dozen  farmhouses  and  we  charged  the  tenants  nothing 
for  their  rent,  cow  pasture,  or  wood.  We  had  to  keep  an 
account  with  these  people.  Sometimes  they  would  get 
something,  probably  a  couple  of  sacks  of  flour  or  cornmeal 
or  corn  down  at  the  crib  for  their  horses,  and  I  would  have 
to  remember  that  going  out  to  the  harvest  field  or  coming 
back. 

“At  that  time  we  had  no  system  of  receipts.  Our 
book  of  accounts  was  kept  in  a  desk  in  the  hall.  We  were 


32 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


always  forgetting  to  make  proper  records  of  things  given 
out,  and  our  books  very  rarely  agreed  with  the  books  of 
our  employees. 

“  People  with  whom  we  dealt  always  made  sure  that  we 
credited  them  with  the  proper  amount  of  labour,  but  we 
had  no  system  by  means  of  which  we  could  be  sure  we 
had  charged  them  with  the  proper  amount  of  goods  sold. 

“I  was  often  awakened  at  night  by  my  father  asking 
me  if  I  was  sure  I  had  charged  a  certain  person  with  the 
things  he  had  taken  home. 

“Afterward,  as  I  looked  back  to  my  experiences  in 
keeping  accounts  on  the  farm,  I  realized  that  mistakes 
mean  a  loss  to  the  seller  and  not  to  the  buyer. 

“When  I  grew  older,  I  was  frequently  in  charge  of  the 
saw  and  grist  mills  which  we  had  on  the  farm,  where  we 
sawed  lumber  and  ground  grain  for  the  neighbours.  We 
tried  to  keep  our  accounts  correct,  but  we  were  continually 
forgetting  to  charge  people  with  the  right  amounts,  and 
making  other  mistakes  which  were  costly. 

“I  remember  one  farmer,  who  kept  his  own  accounts, 
showing  me  that  according  to  his  books  he  owed  us  more 
than  our  books  had  charged  him  with.  I  also  remember 
another  man  who  said  he  was  willing  to  take  our  state¬ 
ment  as  to  what  he  owed  us,  because  it  always  showed  a 
less  amount  than  his  own  books. 

“We  used  to  sell  our  apples  and  garden  produce  in  the 
Dayton  market,  and  on  the  way  home  my  brother  and  I 
would  count  the  money  on  the  wagon  seat  between  us  to 
see  how  much  we  had  made.  Usually  we  didn’t  have  as 
much  as  we  thought  we  should  have,  but  had  no  way  to 
check  it  up  and  never  knew  whether  we  had  lost  some 
of  it  on  the  road  or  had  made  mistakes  in  making  change. 

“‘Did  you  forget  to  charge  it?’  Oh,  my;  it  is  burned 


THE  EARLY  YEARS 


38 


right  in  on  my  brain.  * Did  you  forget  to  charge  it?  When 
you  paid  him  so  much  money  on  account,  did  you  fail 
to  credit  it?  When  you  paid  for  something,  did  you  fail 
to  give  him  credit  for  his  wages  ?  ’  I  can  close  my  eyes  and 
hear  it  all  again.” 

John  wanted  to  get  off  the  farm  and  be  a  manufacturer. 
He  had  started  out  to  be  a  manufacturer.  “It  seemed 
that  nobody  had  anything  for  a  college  man  to  do.  College 
men  were  only  fitted  for  certain  things — doctors  of 
medicine,  doctors  of  law,  and  doctors  of  theology.  I 
didn’t  want  any  of  these  professions.  I  wanted  to  get 
into  manufacturing,  but  I  couldn’t  get  anything  to  do.” 

One  day,  with  Pat  Hagan,  he  was  out  in  the  woods  haul¬ 
ing  logs  for  the  sawmill.  They  sat  down  at  midday  to 
eat  their  lunch  of  bread  and  butter  and  cold  mince  pie. 
John  did  not  mind  the  work,  but  it  got  on  his  nerves  that 
he,  with  a  college  education,  was  not  better  off  than  an 
ordinary  labourer.  Once  having  reached  a  decision,  he 
characteristically  framed  it  into  a  resolution.  He  stood 
up  solemnly  and,  addressing  Pat,  said: 

“I  have  stayed  here  on  this  job  too  long.  I  am  going 
to  look  for  a  job  that  is  worth  more  than  seventy-five 
cents  a  day.  I  can  earn  two  dollars  a  day  teaching  school. 
This  is  the  last  day  I  will  work  on  a  farm.” 

This  he  always  referred  to  as  his  “oath  to  Pat  Hagan.” 
But  John’s  oath  did  not  get  him  a  job.  In  Dayton  he 
was  just  a  college  dude.  No  one  would  hire  him  for  office 
work  because  he  knew  nothing  about  an  office.  They 
would  not  hire  him  for  manual  labour  because  they  said 
a  college  man  was  too  stuck  up  to  work  with  his  hands. 
All  the  men  in  business  were  hopelessly  prejudiced  against 
college  graduates,  excepting  as  lawyers,  doctors,  or  clergy¬ 
men.  John  was  out  for  a  job.  He  heard  that  the  toll 


34 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


collector  at  the  Dayton  office  of  the  canal  was  going  to 
leave  and  he  applied  for  the  place.  The  superintendent 
of  the  canal  would  not  endorse  him — because  he  was  a 
college  man  and  would  therefore  not  attend  to  business. 
One  of  the  canal  lessees,  however,  happened  to  have 
known  Jefferson  Patterson.  He  said  to  the  superin¬ 
tendent: 

“You  are  wrong.  That  boy  will  work.  I  knew  his 
father.  The  boy  has  had  to  work  hard  all  his  life  on  a 
farm.  No  man  could  be  a  son  of  Jefferson  Patterson  and 
not  know  how  to  work.  He  is  just  the  man  for  the  place.” 

He  received  his  appointment  in  1868.  The  salary  was 
eight  hundred  dollars  a  year,  which  was  a  fairly  large 
salary  for  those  days,  but  it  was  not  what  it  seemed, 
for  out  of  it  the  collector  had  to  pay  for  his  office,  fuel, 
light,  and  stationery.  The  rent  was  two  hundred  dollars 
a  year.  The  incidentals  amounted  to  one  hundred  dol¬ 
lars  a  year,  leaving  a  net  income  of  five  hundred 
dollars.  This  was  for  twenty-four  hours’  duty.  John 
Patterson  worked,  slept,  and  ate  in  this  room  seven  days 
a  week  all  the  year  round  excepting  when  the  canal  was 
frozen. 

The  traffic  was  not  heavy  but  it  was  irregular.  John 
might  sit  around  all  day  doing  nothing  and  have  three 
boats  between  midnight  and  two  o’clock  in  the  morning; 
The  tolls  were  paid  according  to  the  character  of  the  goods 
shown  on  the  bill  of  lading.  Each  collector  decided  for 
himself  the  proper  classification  of  the  goods  and  so  every 
toll  payment  was  an  argument.  If  a  bargeman  had  paid 
one  sum  at  one  toll  house,  he  would  not  stand  for  being 
charged  a  higher  toll  by  John  Patterson.  The  collectors 
gave  no  receipts  and  they  had  no  way  of  communicating 
quickly  with  one  another,  so  an  enterprising  bargeman  al- 


THE  EARLY  YEARS 


35 


ways  asserted  that  the  toll  he  was  being  charged  was  out¬ 
rageously  higher  than  the  toll  he  had  paid  at  the  last  office. 

This  bothered  John  for  two  reasons:  First,  it  was  against 
his  conscience  to  charge  any  amount  other  than  what  the 
bill  of  lading  showed  to  be  right.  Second,  with  the  barge 
captains  lying  about  the  amount  of  tolls  they  paid,  he 
had  nothing  but  his  own  word  to  give  to  his  employers 
that  he  was  actually  turning  over  the  amount  of  money 
he  had  collected.  John  Patterson  did  not  take  honesty 
for  granted.  He  took  nothing  for  granted.  He  thought 
that  any  man  might  yield  to  temptation.  Therefore  he 
devised  a  system  of  receipts. 

“I  gave  the  captain  of  each  canal  boat  a  receipt  for  the 
money  he  paid  for  canal  tolls.  This  receipt  was  a  passport 
on  to  the  next  station  or  office,  where  he  had  the  receipt 
I  had  given  him  copied. 

“The  owners  of  the  canal  had  a  check  on  me  because  the 
collector  in  the  office  below  me  had  to  send  the  receipts, 
which  he  took  in,  to  headquarters.  I  also  sent  in  all  the 
receipts  which  I  took  in  that  were  issued  by  the  toll  keepers 
beyond  me. 

“This  system  worked  very  well.  I  had  no  disputes 
with  the  captains  of  any  of  the  boats  and  no  arguments 
with  the  home  office  as  to  the  amount  of  money  which 
I  had  taken  in,” 

Getting  rid  of  the  disputes  with  the  collectors  cut  the 
time  required  to  attend  to  his  duties  on  the  canal  to  al¬ 
most  nothing  and  also  it  gave  him  time  to  think  over  the 
sort  of  job  that  he  had  taken  on.  He  reflected  that  the 
man  before  him  had  been  a  collector  for  many  years  and 
had  retired  at  exactly  the  same  salary  with  which  he  began. 
The  salary  was  fixed  and  promotion  was  all  but  impossi¬ 
ble;  about  the  only  place  ahead  was  the  superintendency 


36 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


of  the  canal  and  that  did  not  amount  to  much.  He  de¬ 
termined  to  start  some  sort  of  a  business  which  would 
bring  him  in  a  little  extra  money  and  possibly  lead  on  to 
something  better.  But  unfortunately  it  had  to  be  a  busi¬ 
ness  which  he  could  attend  to  without  leaving  the  canal 
office  and  which  did  not  require  capital  or  special  knowl¬ 
edge.  He  reasoned: 

“I  pay  my  rent  here;  the  office  is  mine  to  do  with  as  I 
like  provided  I  collect  the  tolls.  I  cannot  go  out  for  orders 
but  I  can  take  orders  here  from  friends.” 

The  only  commodity  which  filled  the  bill  was  coal.  He 
painted  and  hung  out  a  sign:  “Coal  and  Wood. ” 

And  that  is  how  John  Patterson,  aged  twenty -five,  got 
into  business. 


CHAPTER  III 


IN  THE  BUSINESS  KINDERGARTEN 

THE  organization  behind  the  “Coal  and  Wood” 
sign  on  the  Dayton  canal  office  in  1868  consisted 
of  John  Patterson  and  a  slate.  When  a  friend 
came  in  with  an  order — and  at  first  only  friends  gave 
orders — John  wrote  it  down  on  the  slate.  Then  he  went 
out  and  bought  the  coal  or  coke  or  wood  and  hired  a  man 
to  deliver  it.  On  the  slate  he  entered  the  total  amount 
paid  out  by  him,  the  amount  he  was  to  charge,  and  the 
profit.  He  had  to  pay  cash  for  what  he  bought,  so  he 
did  not  have  to  bother  keeping  track  of  his  indebtedness. 
When  the  customer  paid  the  bill,  the  account  was  closed 
by  wiping  off  the  slate.  And  it  may  be  said  right  here 
that  to  the  end  of  his  life  that  slate  essentially  represented 
Mr.  Patterson’s  idea  of  good  bookkeeping.  He  used  often 
to  say: 

“Charge  a  profit — a  reasonable  profit,  but  always  a 
profit  on  every  sale.  Then  make  your  real  money  by 
volume  of  business.” 

He  never  had  the  patience  to  go  into  bookkeeping  or 
accounting,  and  years  later,  when  his  affairs  were  so  large 
as  to  need  a  big  accounting  department,  he  desperately 
struggled  to  find  some  way  of  keeping  his  affairs  in  mind 
without  intricate  financial  statements.  As  long  as  he 
could,  he  kept  his  business  affairs  in  slate  fashion.  When 
this  became  impossible,  he  had  profit-per-register  figures 
worked  out — not  in  percentages  but  in  dollars  and  cents 

37 


38 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


per  register.  The  number  of  sales  then  meant  a  certain 
minimum  amount  of  profit  to  the  company — if  everything 
went  according  to  schedule.  His  whole  effort  was  then 
to  see  that  everything  did  go  according  to  schedule.  With 
the  daily  sales  and  the  daily  bank  balance  in  mind  he 
could  estimate  in  his  own  way  the  condition  of  the  busi¬ 
ness.  No  matter  where  he  was,  the  daily  sales  record  and 
the  bank  balance  had  to  be  wired  to  him,  and  if  they  did 
not  look  right  he  got  home  by  the  fastest  means  possible 
to  locate  the  trouble. 

The  coal  business  picked  up  surprisingly,  for  John  im¬ 
mediately  got  the  reputation  of  delivering  exactly  when 
and  what  he  promised.  In  a  few  months  he  took  in  his 
brother  Steve,  and  they  added  “S.  J.  Patterson  &  Co.” 
to  the  impersonal  sign  John  had  put  up.  On  account  of 
the  canal  job  John  thought  it  would  not  look  quite  right 
to  have  his  own  name  displayed.  Steve  attended  to  the 
filling  of  the  orders  and  saw  to  it  that  the  teamster  who  did 
most  of  the  delivering  did  not  delay — which  he  was  apt 
to  do  because  he  had  to  change  his  horse  from  a  dray  to 
a  cart  to  take  the  coal  and  sometimes  he  thought  that 
was  a  deal  of  trouble  which  might  be  put  off  until  another 
day. 

The  brothers  made  a  net  profit  of  about  twenty-five 
cents  a  ton  on  coal.  In  about  a  year  they  had  found 
enough  business  to  make  it  worth  while  becoming  coal 
merchants.  The  owner  of  a  coal  yard  next  door  to  the 
canal  office  was  willing  to  sell.  John  made  a  deal  to  buy 
him  out  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

“Where  are  you  going  to  get  the  money?”  asked  Steve. 
The  twenty-five  cents  a  ton  plus  the  ten  dollars  a  week 
from  the  canal  had  not  given  the  firm  any  undue  surplus. 

“Borrow  it,”  answered  John. 


IN  THE  BUSINESS  KINDERGARTEN  39 


He  went  to  Gebhart,  Harman  &  Co.,  a  firm  of  local 
bankers,  and,  on  the  strength  of  his  interest  in  the  farm, 
got  the  money.  Then  the  brothers  became  proprietors 
of  a  tumble-down  coal  yard,  whatever  there  was  in  the 
way  of  good  will,  a  pair  of  scales,  two  carts,  some  coal, 
lime,  cement,  and  wood,  and  two  blind  horses — which  Mr. 
Patterson  afterward  appraised  as  being  worth  at  a  top 
price  ten  dollars  each. 

Out  of  that  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  grew  the 
whole  National  Cash  Register  Company.  Of  course  Mr. 
Patterson  had  not  even  heard  of  the  cash  register  at  the 
time.  He  had  no  plans  beyond  getting  into  business. 
But  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  is  directly  connected 
with  his  later  development,  for  it  put  him  into  business 
and  gave  him  a  chance  to  build  up  the  personal  capital 
and  credit  that  later  furnished  him  with  enough  money 
to  buy  his  cash-register  interest.  Some  years  later  he 
realized  sixty-five  hundred  dollars  on  the  sale  of  some 
property  left  to  him  by  his  father,  but  this  sum  he  had  to 
use  to  buy  out  the  minority  stockholders — it  did  not  go 
into  the  coal  business.  The  start  of  everything  was  the 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  And  in  every  way  it  is 
remarkable. 

He  did  not  start  with  a  big  idea  and  a  small  capital. 
He  had  no  big  idea.  That  did  not  come  until  much  later, 
for  John  Patterson  developed  rather  slowly.  He  started 
with  the  commonplace  idea  that  perhaps  he  could  make 
a  tiny  retail  coal  business  pay.  His  working  capital  was 
what  he  could  currently  save  out  of  the  ten  dollars  a  week 
paid  by  the  canal  company,  and  up  to  date  he  had  not 
been  able  to  save  anything  out  of  it.  His  fixed  capital 
was  exactly  nothing,  for  he  owed  the  full  purchase  price 
of  the  little  coal  yard. 


40 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Most  men  think  it  hard  enough  to  have  to  start  into 
business  from  scratch.  John  Patterson  started  several 
yards  behind  scratch.  He  did  not  know  enough  about 
business  to  understand  that  launching  a  new  enterprise, 
not  merely  without  working  capital  but  with  a  fixed  capi¬ 
tal  owed  for  on  a  short-time  obligation,  was  not  really 
taking  a  chance  in  business  at  all.  Not  one  venture  out 
of  ten  thousand  that  starts  under  these  conditions  gets 
by.  A  ten-thousand-to-one  shot  can  hardly  be  described 
as  a  chance.  Yet,  to  get  ahead  of  the  story  a  little,  the 
fact  stands  forth  that  not  only  did  John  Patterson  win 
out  in  the  coal  business  in  spite  of  the  conditions  of  its 
start,  but  he  also  founded  the  N.  C.  R.  and  continued  it 
for  many  years  owing  on  short-time  obligation  for  his 
capital  assets.  It  was  not  until  many  years  later,  when 
the  business  was  on  a  world-wide  basis,  that  the  debts 
were  funded  by  a  preferred  stock  issue.  He  never  really 
distinguished  between  borrowing  for  bricks  and  mortar 
and  borrowing  in  the  cycle  of  manufacturing  and  selling. 
He  thought  that  earnings  put  back  into  the  business  ought 
to  pay  for  all  capital  improvements  and  extensions.  It 
was  his  sound  practice  with  respect  to  taking  money  out 
of  the  business  that  saved  him  from  the  disaster  that  would 
otherwise  have  surely  come  as  a  result  of  an  essentially 
unsound  confusion  of  fixed  and  working  capital.  From 
the  very  beginning  he  regarded  a  profit  not  at  all  as  a 
personal  perquisite  but  as  something  to  put  back  into  the 
business  to  make  it  bigger  and  better.  He  put  back  the 
profits  with  supreme  confidence.  He  was  always  willing 
to  go  down  with  the  ship.  He  never  had  anything  laid 
by  on  the  outside  for  himself.  And  he  met  financial  crises 
head  on. 

Mr.  Patterson  knew  all  about  financial  crises — they 


IN  THE  BUSINESS  KINDERGARTEN  41 


were  his  constant  companions.  In  the  beginning  they 
used  to  visit  him  once  a  week.  Then  they  came  around 
only  once  a  month;  then  only  once  a  year.  They  did  not 
quit  calling  for  about  thirty-five  years.  He  shook  hands 
with  every  one  of  them  and  then  edged  them  off  the  prem¬ 
ises.  Sometimes  they  did  not  want  to  go  but  they  always 
did  go.  They  were  always  pushed  out  by  a  crowd  of 
business.  His  unvarying  rule  when  short  of  money  or 
when  outgo  began  to  exceed  income  was  to  get  more  in¬ 
come  from  more  sales.  He  believed  that  cutting  down 
expenses  to  make  ends  meet  was  the  surest  possible  way 
to  prevent  them  from  meeting.  He  held  that  cutting 
down  expenses  cut  down  initiative  and  energy.  If  his 
bank  account  became  anaemic,  he  went  right  out  after  the 
fresh  blood  of  new  business.  He  doubled  his  volume  in 
the  depression  following  the  Panic  of  1893.  John  Patter¬ 
son  was  always  at  his  finest  when  in  trouble.  He  fairly 
revelled  in  it. 

With  the  coal  yard  bought,  he  at  once  began  to  show 
what  sort  of  business  stuff  he  had  in  him.  Retail  coal 
selling  was  on  a  strictly  habit  basis.  There  were  a  dozen 
or  more  coal  dealers  in  Dayton  and  they  all  sold  about 
the  same  sort  of  coal  in  the  same  way.  Certain  truths 
were  held  by  them  to  be  self-evident — among  them  was 
that  coal  was  just  coal,  that  it  was  a  dirty  business  at  the 
best,  and  therefore  a  coal  yard  was  not  a  parlour,  a  coal 
cart  was  not  in  the  class  with  any  known  vehicle,  excepting 
perhaps  a  garbage  wagon,  and  that  the  driver  of  a  coal 
cart  was  normally  covered  with  coal  dust.  No  coal  dealer 
in  Dayton  really  had  anything  to  offer  that  every  other 
dealer  did  not  have.  It  was  a  drifting  sort  of  business. 

John  Patterson  could  as  easily  as  not  have  sat  around 
his  canal  office  taking  tolls  when  a  boat  went  by  or  taking 


42 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


orders  for  coal  when  somebody  dropped  in  yearning  for 
coal.  He  would  have  been  merely  following  precedent, 
and  it  was  considered  in  those  days  highly  dangerous  for 
any  one  to  follow  anything  but  precedent.  For  some 
months  John  Patterson  did  follow  precedent.  He  took 
orders  and  filled  them.  The  amount  of  each  sale  and  the 
profit  on  it  went  up  on  the  slate.  Then  he  began  to  ask 
himself  why  any  one  wanting  coal  should  buy  from  him 
rather  than  from  any  of  the  other  dealers  in  town.  It  was 
an  elementary,  fundamental  approach  to  business.  He 
could  find  no  reason  other  than  friendship.  He  did  not 
consider  friendship  as  a  sound  basis  for  business  inter¬ 
course. 

Therefore  he  proceeded  to  create  some  reasons  why  the 
public  should  deal  with  him.  His  reasons  are  as  good  to¬ 
day  as  when  he  created  them.  He  made  a  specialized 
product  out  of  an  ordinary  commodity.  Then,  when  he 
had  something  special,  he  advertised  it. 

His  first  step  was  to  get  a  good  coal.  He  found  that  a 
Hocking  Valley  coal  known  as  “Brooks”  coal  was  gener¬ 
ally  considered  by  the  people  in  exclusive  Dayton  to  be 
the  best  coal.  He  got  the  Dayton  agency  for  that  coal 
and  advertised  it  in  the  newspapers.  He  found  that  dirty 
coal  was  a  frequent  cause  of  complaint.  He  made  it  a 
rule  that  all  the  coal  his  company  delivered  must  be  clean. 
More  than  that,  it  must  be  all  of  the  size  ordered  and  con¬ 
tain  absolutely  no  slack.  If  a  carload  of  coal  came  in 
dirty,  the  teamsters  had  to  screen  it  by  hand  on  a  gravel 
screen.  Otto  Nelson,  who  had  been  continuously  in  the 
employ  of  Mr.  Patterson  and  later  of  the  N.  C.  R.  since 
1881  and  whose  father  was  also  employed  by  Mr.  Patter¬ 
son  in  the  coal  business,  told  me  that  Mr.  Patterson 
shipped  coal  as  though  each  lump  were  an  Oregon  apple. 


WHERE  MR.  PATTERSON  STARTED  IN  BUSINESS  AS  A  CANAL  COLLECTOR 


^ !_  I,, 

Day  book  used  byyPatterson  £&>  Co. 


THE  YOUNG  COAL  MERCHANT  S  SIMPLIFIED  BOOKKEEPING 

At  first,  when  a  friend  came  in  with  an  order,  John  wrote  it  down  on  a  slate. 
Then  he  went  out  and  bought  and  paid  for  the  coal  or  coke  or  wood  and  hired  a  man 
to  deliver  it.  When  the  customer  paid  the  bill,  the  account  was  closed  by  wiping 
off  the  slate.  When  he  took  his  brother  Steve  into  partnership,  the  combination 
was  called  “S.  J.  Patterson  &  Co.”  The  slate  was  superseded  by  a  “Day  book,” 
but  to  the  end  of  his  life  John  H.  Patterson  retained  his  simplified  idea  of  book* 
keeping. 


IN  THE  BUSINESS  KINDERGARTEN  43 


He  did  everything  to  the  coal  but  wrap  it  in  tissue  paper. 
He  told  me  of  one  new  teamster  who,  not  knowing  the 
clean-coal  rule,  delivered  two  tons  of  nut  coal  that  had 
some  slack  mixed  with  it.  Mr.  Patterson  heard  of  the 
delivery.  He  went  at  once  to  the  purchaser  and  apologized 
for  the  condition  of  the  coal.  Then  he  sent  a  man  with 
a  screen  to  clean  it.  This  man  took  out  sixty  pounds  of 
slack.  Mr.  Patterson  sent  one  hundred  pounds  of  clean 
coal  to  replace  it.  He  said  that  no  one  had  a  right  to 
expect  business  unless  he  satisfied  customers. 

The  mines  soon  learned  not  to  send  dirty  coal  to  the 
Pattersons,  for  whenever  a  bad  carload  arrived  the  next 
train  out  to  the  mines  had  John  Patterson  as  a  passenger. 
It  does  not  take  any  particular  amount  of  imagination  to 
figure  out  just  about  what  Mr.  Patterson  had  to  say  when 
he  reached  the  mine  or  how  he  went  about  it.  At  any 
rate,  according  to  Mr.  Nelson,  no  dirty  coal  ever  came 
through  for  a  long  time  after  one  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  visits. 

He  found  that  coal  buyers  generally  complained  of 
short  weight.  He  bought  the  best  scales  on  the  market. 
He  had  them  tested  every  thirty  days.  After  a  cart¬ 
load  of  coal  was  balanced  for  weight  he  made  it  a  rule  to 
add  an  extra  shovelful.  Then  he  advertised  that  any 
customer  could  have  the  coal  bought  from  him  weighed 
on  the  public  scales  at  the  company’s  expense.  Often 
when  Mr.  Patterson  met  one  of  his  teams  delivering  coal 
he  would  order  the  teamster  to  drive  to  a  public  scale  and 
have  the  weight  checked.  All  this  he  advertised. 

Later,  when  he  began  to  make  money,  he  discarded  the 
two  blind  horses  and  bought  the  best  horses  he  could  find. 
These  horses  had  to  be  well  groomed  and  kept  in  condition. 
He  fitted  them  out  with  gold- and  silver-trimmed  har¬ 
ness.  He  had  the  carts  painted  brown  and  put  “Patterson 


44 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


&  Co.”  in  big  gold  letters  on  their  sides.  Thus  he  began  to 
differentiate  his  business  from  any  other  coal  business.  In 
a  way  he  took  himself  out  of  competition  with  the  others 
in  business. 

He  worked  unremittingly.  One  morning  a  boat  man 
came  through  about  four  o’clock  and  found  Mr.  Patterson 
at  work. 

“What  are  you  doing  up  at  this  time  of  the  night?” 
asked  the  boat  man. 

“What  time  is  it?” 

“Four  o’clock.” 

“I  am  making  out  my  monthly  coal  bills,”  replied  Mr. 
Patterson.  “We  must  get  in  about  nine  hundred  dollars 
to  pay  our  freight  bills  or  we  shall  be  put  off  the  railroad.” 

He  was  continually  short  of  money,  because  he  was 
doing  a  fair-sized  business  on  no  capital  whatsoever.  He 
followed  the  old  slate  procedure  of  marking  up  the  profit 
on  every  transaction,  and  being  short  of  ready  cash  did 
not  bother  him  as  long  as  he  had  before  him  a  record  of 
profit  on  the  transactions.  He  of  course  had  no  bank 
credit,  but  he  had  personal  credit,  and  when  he  had  to 
have  additional  money  he  used  that  credit.  He  told  the 
story  of  one  of  these  borrowings  to  illustrate  his  favourite 
principle,  that  if  one  went  to  a  man  to  say  something  the 
thing  to  do  when  he  got  there  was  to  say  what  he  had  to 
say  without  any  preliminary  palaver.  On  this  morning 
he  needed  five  hundred  dollars  at  once.  He  went  into 
the  office  of  George  Phillips,  and,  as  he  entered,  said : 

“I  want  to  borrow  five  hundred  dollars  until  this 
Friday.” 

Mr.  Phillips  turned  around  to  his  clerk: 

“Write  out  a  check,  George.”  Then  he  continued  to 
Mr.  Patterson:  “Let  me  give  you  a  little  advice.  If  you 


IN  THE  BUSINESS  KINDERGARTEN  45 


had  not  asked  for  it  in  the  way  you  did — if  you  had  said 
to  me:  ‘Good  morning,  Mr.  Phillips.  How  do  you  feel 
this  morning  and  how  is  business?’ — you  would  not  have 
gotten  the  money.  Always  be  brief.  And  another  thing, 
be  sure  to  pay  back  that  money  next  Friday.” 

The  money  was  paid  on  Friday. 

The  daily  records  showed  profits  on  every  transaction, 
but  the  firm  did  not  have  any  money.  There  was  a 
difference  between  what  they  ought  to  have  and  what 
they  did  have.  Mr.  Patterson  could  not  account  for 
the  discrepancy.  He  got  a  clue  while  making  his  collection 
rounds.  Most  of  the  customers  disputed  the  amount  of 
coal  that  they  were  charged  with.  He  had  to  make 
compromises  in  a  number  of  cases.  This  worried  him. 
It  also  occurred  to  him  that  if  the  customers  were  not  sure 
about  the  amount  of  coal  that  they  received  probably 
the  firm  itself  did  not  know  how  much  coal  it  actually 
delivered.  It  was  perfectly  in  reason  to  suppose  that 
charges  were  forgotten  or  were  made  against  the  wrong 
customer.  Thereupon,  remembering  his  experience  on 
the  canal  with  the  receipts,  he  devised  a  system  of  receipt 
tickets. 

All  of  this  seems  simple  enough  to  us  now.  We  are 
familiar  with  receipting  for  most  of  the  articles  that  are 
delivered  to  us.  But  it  was  an  absolutely  new  idea  at  the 
time.  Mr.  Patterson  had  receipt  tickets  printed  and  sent 
one  out  with  each  load  of  coal  certifying  to  the  kind  of  coal, 
the  weight,  and  the  price.  The  purchaser  had  to  sign 
the  receipt  at  the  time  of  delivery.  Then  when  the  bill 
was  presented  for  payment,  the  receipts  were  always  at¬ 
tached  to  show  that  the  amount  of  the  bill  was  correct. 
His  brother  protested  about  the  expense  of  the  receipts, 
but  John  Patterson  persisted  in  their  use  and  he  used  to 


46 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


tell  triumphantly  of  a  collection  he  made  from  a  man  who 
in  the  previous  year  had  protested  the  size  of  his  account. 

“I  remembered  the  first  time  I  went  into  the  man’s 
house  to  collect  a  bill  and  how  he  claimed  that  my  account 
was  wrong.  He  started  to  do  the  same  thing  again.  He 
said: 

“‘I  never  got  that  much  coal.  There  you  have  got  me 
charged  with  eight  tons  of  coal.  I  could  not  have  used 
it.’ 

“I  handed  him  the  eight  tickets.  He  said: 

“‘There  is  one.  My  wife  signed  that;  it  is  all  right. 
Here  is  one  that  I  don’t  know  anything  about.  I  didn’t 
sign  it  and  we  haven’t  anybody  about  our  house  named 
Mary  O’Flannigan.’ 

“I  answered:  ‘Isn’t  your  servant  named  Mary?’ 

“‘I  don’t  know  what  her  name  is.’ 

“  ‘There  was  nobody  else  at  home  and  she  signed  it.  I 
will  ask  the  driver.’ 

“I  asked  the  driver  and  he  said  that  the  servant  had 
signed  the  ticket.  Pie  disputed  another  ton.  I  showed 
him  the  ticket;  on  the  back  of  it  was  written  in  the 
driver’s  handwriting,  ‘No  one  at  home.’  It  was  signed 
by  a  neighbour  and  the  driver  had  put  his  initial  at  the 
bottom.  The  customer  then  gave  up: 

“‘I  will  take  it  all  back.  We  got  that  coal  and  we 
burned  it  and  here  is  your  check.  You  could  have  had 
all  the  trade  in  Dayton  if  you  had  done  this  four  years 
ago.’” 

Having  introduced  the  receipts,  John  insisted  that  they 
be  used: 

“We  lost  one  load  of  coal  because  the  driver  failed  to 
get  the  ticket  signed.  My  brother  wanted  him  to  go 
back  and  get  it  signed.  I  said: 


IN  THE  BUSINESS  KINDERGARTEN  47 


“‘No,  the  man  was  at  home  and  you  forgot  it  and  we 
will  just  let  it  go.’ 

“My  brother  never  forgave  me  for  losing  that  load  of 
coal,  but  I  wanted  to  set  an  example.” 

The  receipt  system  increased  both  the  volume  of  busi¬ 
ness  and  the  profits.  Then  came  the  first  big  setback. 
The  company  which  had  been  selling  the  Brooks  coal  to 
the  Pattersons  thought  the  increased  sales  were  due  solely 
to  the  excellence  of  the  coal.  They  did  not  see  why  they 
should  not  supply  all  Dayton  instead  of  being  confined  to 
one  firm,  and  they  set  about  cancelling  the  agency.  John 
Patterson  was  on  the  spot  at  once. 

“It  is  not  your  coal  that  is  making  the  sales,”  he  said 
to  them.  “It  is  the  way  we  are  selling  it.  If  you  take 
away  this  agency  you  will  regret  it  only  once — and  that 
will  be  all  your  life.” 

The  coal  company  could  not  see  what  had  built  up 
their  business.  They  abrogated  the  agency  contract  and 
tried  to  put  their  coal  in  every  yard  in  Dayton.  John 
Patterson  immediately  secured  another  Hocking  Valley 
coal  which  was  about  as  good  as  the  Brooks,  added  his 
service  to  it,  and  sold  just  as  much  of  it  as  he  had  of  the 
Brooks.  The  Brooks  people  saw  their  Dayton  business 
drop  right  back  again  to  where  it  had  been  before  the  Pat¬ 
tersons  started  to  advertise. 

The  business  could  not  help  increasing.  John  was  now 
giving  his  entire  time  to  the  coal  business,  having  resigned 
his  canal  collectorship  in  1876.  Every  customer  got  what 
he  paid  for  and  a  little  more.  The  smallest  complaint  was 
a  personal  affair  for  John  Patterson  and  he  settled  each 
complaint  to  the  absolute  satisfaction  of  the  customer — 
and  regardless  of  expense.  The  “regardless  of  expense” 
feature  annoyed  his  brother  Steve;  the  two  brothers  were 


48 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


so  unlike  in  disposition  that  any  long  business  association 
between  them  was  impossible,  and  especially  since  Steve, 
being  the  elder,  thought  he  ought  to  have  the  final  say. 
He  was  against  most  of  John’s  new  ideas.  So  in  1879 
they  dissolved  partnership,  Steve  buying  out  John’s  in¬ 
terest  in  the  business.  John  then,  with  his  youngest 
brother,  Frank,  organized  a  new  firm.  The  firm  became 
Patterson  and  Company.  He  had  the  wagons  painted 
and  the  new  firm  name  placed  on  them  in  large  gold  letters. 
He  knew  the  advertising  value  of  those  clean,  fresh¬ 
looking  wagons  that  could  be  seen  several  blocks  away. 
Just  a  few  days  after  the  repainting,  people  all  over  Day- 
ton  began  to  speak  to  him  about  the  business  he  was  doing. 
“We  see  your  wagons  everywhere,”  they  would  say. 
Mr.  Patterson  had  already  sensed  the  importance  of  an 
air  of  prosperity;  one  of  his  maxims  was  that  before  a 
man  could  be  prosperous  he  had  to  look  prosperous.  The 
business  grew;  the  one  office  developed  into  six,  designated 
by  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  from  “A”  to  “F.”  The 
brown  of  the  coal  carts  and  the  gold  lettering  were  carried 
out  into  the  painting  of  the  exteriors  of  the  offices — the 
company  had  a  colour  scheme  to  distinguish  it  from  all 
other  companies.  We  see  nothing  remarkable  in  that 
to-day,  but  then  it  was  an  absolutely  new  idea. 

The  offices  had  to  be  clean.  Mr.  Patterson  was  about 
as  neat  a  man  as  ever  lived  and  everything  about  him  had 
to  be  likewise.  He  thought  that  no  man  could  do  accurate 
work  amidst  disorder.  No  coal  offices  such  as  the  Pat¬ 
tersons’  had  ever  been  seen;  his  delivery  outfits  ranked 
almost  as  equipages.  The  business  men  thought  him  ex¬ 
travagant,  but  they  had  to  admit  that  he  got  the  business. 
In  a  few  years  he  had  more  than  half  the  business  of 
Dayton.  His  numerous  offices  made  it  easy  to  order 


IN  THE  BUSINESS  KINDERGARTEN  49 


from  him — which  was  why  he  had  the  offices.  He  knew 
that,  in  spite  of  his  extra  service  and  his  good  coal,  people 
would  not  go  to  much  trouble  to  order  coal — he  had  to  be 
right  at  hand  to  take  the  order.  This  was  before  tele¬ 
phones  were  in  general  use.  John  Patterson,  however,  had 
a  telephone  as  early  as  1878 — the  first  one  in  Dayton.  He 
never  let  anything  new  get  by  him. 

All  the  coal  for  Dayton  had  to  come  from  the  mines 
by  a  roundabout  route  through  some  two  hundred  miles 
and  over  three  railways.  That  made  the  freight  ex¬ 
pensive.  A  direct  line  to  the  Coalton  and  Wellston  fields 
would  be  only  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  long.  Several 
citizens  proposed  that  Dayton  finance  a  narrow-gauge 
railroad  over  the  direct  route.  John  Patterson  had  no 
money  to  put  into  a  railroad  but  he  had  a  surplus  of  energy 
and  he  was  among  the  most  active  of  the  promoters  of  the 
new  railroad,  which  was  finally  organized  as  the  Dayton 
and  Southeastern  Railroad.  He  advanced  the  argument 
that  it  was  a  community  duty  to  make  an  investment 
which  would  save  the  community  money.  They  raised 
the  money  and  built  the  railroad.  It  is  now  a  part  of  the 
Baltimore  &  Ohio  system. 

The  business  of  the  brothers  became  sufficiently  large  to 
warrant  mining  their  own  coal.  They  leased  a  mine  at 
Coalton  and  later  one  at  Wellston  near  by,  and  later 
opened  a  mine  store.  The  little  railroad  did  not  have 
enough  coal  cars  and  had  not  the  money  to  buy  more. 
John  Patterson  borrowed  fifteen  thousand  dollars  in 
Dayton  and  had  fifty -five  coal  cars  built  and  saw  that 
every  one  of  them  was  duly  labelled  “Patterson  &  Co.” 
in  big  letters.  This  was  the  largest  investment  he  had 
ever  made  and  it  begins  to  show  something  of  his  capacity. 

He  also  gave  evidence  of  what  later  became  a  character- 


50 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


istic.  He  found  that  the  people  of  Dayton  held  that  all 
coal  miners  were  more  beast  than  man.  That  would  never 
do — he  knew  the  miners.  As  a  matter  of  education  he 
thought  it  would  be  well  for  the  people  of  Dayton  to  have 
a  look  at  his  miners  and  for  the  miners  to  have  a  look  at 
the  people  of  Dayton.  Therefore  he  brought  all  the 
miners  and  their  families  up  for  a  Sunday  in  Dayton. 
The  railroad  had  only  two  passenger  coaches  so  Mr. 
Patterson  had  the  coal  cars  fitted  up  with  seats.  it  was  a 
great  party — and  not  a  bad  advertisement. 

He  was  always  searching  for  the  quickest  and  most 
convenient  way  of  doing  everything.  But  the  way  had 
to  be  also  the  most  thorough  and  most  accurate.  It  was 
an  affair  of  great  pride  with  him  that  in  all  his  years  of 
service  as  a  canal  collector  his  only  error  had  been  one 
of  four  cents.  He  had  to  know  sales  and  profits  every 
day — which  is  not  a  bad  idea  for  a  small  business  that  is 
extending  rapidly  and  has  no  money  to  spare.  He  worked 
out  a  daily  statement  form  which  gave  him  everything 
that  he  wanted  to  know.  Then  he  had  the  form  printed, 
and  making  it  up  became  a  matter  of  daily  routine. 

He  instituted  a  daily  report  showing  the  number  of 
loads  handled  by  each  teamster  and  the  time  employed. 
From  this  he  made  up  a  weekly  chart  to  measure  the 
efficiency  of  the  delivery  service.  If  the  efficiency  dropped, 
he  had  to  know  why.  One  week  the  figures  showed  that 
several  teamsters  had  worked  overtime — but  the  deliveries 
were  less  than  the  average  and  there  had  been  no  long 
hauls.  Mr.  Patterson  examined  the  drivers.  One  told 
him  a  horse  had  lost  a  shoe  and  he  had  to  delay  while  he 
was  being  shod.  Another  teamster  had  made  a  mistake 
on  the  kind  of  coal  ordered  and  had  to  return  and  unload 
it.  Another  had  delivered  a  ton  of  coal  C.  O.  D.  and  for- 


Central  Office,  Third  Street,  opp.  the  pRrk 


Dayton,  O. 


Recei?ei  of  PATTERSON,  A  CO. 

*  Lbs.  Chestnut  Coal 

at  $  -X-/--  '  Pw  Ton.  *, 

Signed  - 


<Daylon,  0.,  . / 

W«i  rf  PATTERSON 


Dayton,  0..  <  /  £188  / 

Received  of  PATTERSON  &  (fu!, 
s-  ~  tbs.  CORSE’S  LUMP  CQft,’ 

per  Ton.  . 


per  Ton. 


Signed. 


I  Signed, 


Ollii'!:  A,  Third  Street.  «|ipn>ite  the  Piirk. 

Office  1!.  nenrT.  !>.  A  T>.  R.  11  Itepot.  _ 

Office  Third  Street,  near  R.  K.  CrntMriK- 
Office  I),  U  avtie  Street,  opp<>  ite  Market  House 
Office  K,  at  Southern  Ohio  Con  I A  Iron  Co’s  Transfer, 
Office  F.  Fifth  Street  Railroad  Crossinn. 


.  '  ift 

V  ■ 

..  "*  .Jiveri:;.::. 


Dayton.  0. .  188  df  iSp 

ECEIVED  OF  PATTERSON  &  CO., 

£bs.  CORSE’S  LUMP  COAL,  |  fe 


Signed 


OjhTv  A,  Third  Street.  opposite  the  Park. 

Office  J>.  near  1  .  D.  .M  l>.  R.  K  Depot. 

Office  (\  Third  Street,  near  R.  U.  <  ros«in«. 

Off'H?  D,  Way  ite  St  re*  ? .  opin'*  ite  Market  House. 
Office  K,  it  t  Southern  <  >!  i  *  *  <*<,.«  I  A  iron  C<»*s  Transfer . 
Oflino  F,  Fifth  Street  Railroad  Crossing. 


/>  d  . 


A  SYSTEM  OF  RECEIPTS  DEVISED  BY  “J.  II.  P.” 

Most  of  the  customers  disputed  the  amount  of  coal  that  they  were  charged 
with.  So  he  devised  a  system  of  ticket  receipts.  This  seems  simple  enough  now, 
but  it  was  new  at  the  time 


JAMES  RITTY  ' 

The  inventor  of  the  cash  register.  He  conceived  his  idea  through  watching 
an  indicator  which  tallied  the  revolutions  of  the  propeller  shaft  in  the  engine  room 
of  a  vessel  on  which  he  was  sailing  to  Europe. 


IN  THE  BUSINESS  KINDERGARTEN  51 


gotten  to  collect.  He  lost  more  than  half  an  hour  going 
back  to  collect. 

A  couple  of  days  after  this  investigation  Mr.  Patterson 
had  a  new  system  of  delivery  tickets,  to  avoid  the  delivery 
errors.  These  tickets  were  in  colours — a  colour  for  each 
kind  of  coal.  The  driver  had  only  to  go  to  the  bin  bearing 
the  colour  and  he  was  sure  to  get  the  right  coal.  This 
was  important,  for  some  of  the  drivers  could  not  read. 

The  receipt  tickets  for  the  customers  were  also  in  colours. 
A  white  ticket  indicated  that  the  coal  had  been  paid  for, 
a  red  ticket  was  a  charge,  and  a  blue  ticket  was  a  C.  O.  D. 

This  was  another  characteristic  principle — never  to 
leave  open  the  way  to  error  if  it  could  possibly  be  guarded. 

John  Patterson  was  already  out  of  the  business  kinder¬ 
garten  and  undertaking  his  own  business  education. 


I 


CHAPTER  IV 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY 

THE  Patterson  brothers,  operating  three  coal  mines, 
a  store,  and  a  chain  of  retail  coal  yards,  all  with¬ 
out  capital,  had  their  hands  rather  more  than  full. 
That  did  not  bother  John  Patterson — he  was  always 
marching  well  in  advance  of  his  capital.  What  did  bother 
him  was  the  limitations  which  the  lack  of  capital  imposed 
on  him — he  could  not  turn  quickly  enough  in  the  mining 
end  of  the  business  to  make  current  income  act  as  capital. 

Helping  to  promote  the  little  narrow-gauge  railway  had 
given  him  an  insight  into  the  methods  of  forming  cor¬ 
porations — he  had  previously  known  nothing  at  all  about 
them.  The  corporate  form  of  organization  was  then  not 
at  all  familiar  to  business;  it  had  not  been  much  used  ex¬ 
cepting  for  railroads  and  banks  and  they  were  mostly 
organized  under  special  acts  of  the  legislatures.  Certain 
features  of  the  form  appealed  to  John  Patterson’s  mind; 
he  particularly  liked  the  communal  subscription  of  capital 
and  sharing  of  profits  without  the  cumbersomeness  of  the 
large  partnership.  He  did  not  see  why  he  should  not  head 
a  company  to  mine  coal — a  company  which  could  own 
mines  and  cars  and  be  generally  independent.  He  wanted 
to  mine  coal  in  a  bigger  way — he  always  wanted  to  do 
everything  in  the  biggest  way.  And  now  he  was  be¬ 
ginning  to  get  confidence  in  his  own  judgment,  for  the 
brothers  had  already  established  themselves  as  coal  min¬ 
ers  and  distributors. 


52 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  53 


The  opportunity  to  get  into  larger  business  soon  came. 
The  Pattersons  were  known  as  the  most  active  coal  men 
in  the  Jackson  County  region.  They  owned  the  Garfield 
and  Sterling  mines  at  Coalton  and  also  a  property  known 
as  the  “Western”  near  by  and  had  several  leases  of  other 
properties  on  royalty  arrangements.  The  daily  capacity 
was  four  hundred  tons  and  the  rights  were  worth  easily 
thirty-six  thousand  dollars.  The  country  was  then  being 
covered  with  a  network  of  narrow-gauge  railways  like 
the  Dayton  and  Southeastern  mentioned  in  the  last 
chapter  and  for  which  John  Patterson  had  worked  hard 
to  get  the  money.  The  new  plan  brought  all  the  narrow- 
gauge  units  together  under  the  name  of  the  Toledo, 
Delphos  and  Burlington  System.  The  odds  and  ends  of 
little  railways  which  went  to  make  up  the  system  are 
worth  noting.  The  divisions  were:  The  Toledo  Di¬ 
vision,  from  Toledo,  Ohio,  to  Kokomo,  Ind.,  181  miles; 
St.  Louis  Division,  from  Kokomo,  Ind.,  to  East  St.  Louis, 
268  miles ;  Dayton  Division  and  Shanesville  Branch  from 
Delphos  to  Dayton,  Ohio,  102  miles;  Cincinnati  Northern 
Division,  from  Cincinnati  to  Dayton,  55  miles;  Dayton 
and  Southeastern  Division,  from  Dayton  to  the  terminus 
of  the  Iron  Railroad  and  branches,  185  miles;  the  Iron 
Railroad  (and  spurs),  from  Ironton,  Ohio,  to  the  Dayton 
and  Southeastern  connection,  23  miles;  the  Spring  Grove, 
Avondale  and  Cincinnati  Branch,  through  the  suburbs  of 
Cincinnati  and  the  zoological  gardens,  5  miles. 

The  financial  dictator  or  promoter  of  the  enterprise  was 
George  William  Ballou  of  Boston  and,  although  the  bonds 
were  sold  in  the  neighbourhoods  served  by  the  roads, 
the  control  of  the  stock  was  with  a  group  of  Boston  men. 
This  is  how  John  Patterson  first  got  in  touch  with  Boston 
financiers  and  is  the  reason  why  the  principal  financing  of 


54 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


the  National  Cash  Register  Company  was  always  done  in 
Boston.  The  president  of  the  railway  system  was  General 
John  M.  Corse,  one  of  Sherman’s  men  and  a  well-known 
veteran  of  the  Civil  War.  This  was  the  period  when  it 
was  considered  good  business  to  have  a  general  at  the 
head  of  every  company  appealing  for  the  public’s  money. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  General  Grant  was  unfortu¬ 
nately  induced  to  go  into  business,  while  the  “Generals 
Disaster”  of  the  West  Shore  Railroad  will  not  easily  be 
forgotten  by  many.  The  railway  crowd  wanted  to  get 
into  coal  mining.  They  picked  on  the  Pattersons  as 
the  best  managers  and  on  March  8,  1881,  General  Corse 
executed  an  agreement  with  John  H.  and  Frank  Patterson 
by  which  the  Pattersons  were  to  buy  coal  lands  on  the 
line  of  the  railway  in  the  name  of  Corse.  Then  these 
lands  were  to  be  resold  to  a  corporation  to  be  formed  and 
the  Pattersons  were  to  get  one  third  of  the  profits  of  such 
sales.  It  was  then  considered  entirely  legitimate  for  the 
organizers  of  a  company  to  acquire  property  personally 
and  sell  it  to  the  company.  That  is  the  chief  way  in 
which  money  was  made  out  of  promotion;  the  plan  is  not 
entirely  unknown  to-day. 

And  now  begins  the  period  in  John  Patterson’s  life 
which  he  looked  back  on  as  the  most  disagreeable.  As  a 
result  of  his  experiences,  he  made  the  rule  never  to  engage 
in  any  enterprise  which  he  did  not  control  and  never  to 
buy  a  bond  or  a  share  of  stock  in  an  outside  company;  he 
even  went  so  far  as  to  refuse  to  carry  life  insurance.  His 
ordeal  was  not  unlike  that  of  Henry  Ford’s  who  also,  once 
he  got  free,  would  take  no  interest  outside  of  his  business 
and  who  also  is  always  in  control  of  whatever  he  under¬ 
takes.  After  it  was  all  over  and  John  Patterson  had  re¬ 
ceived  his  lesson,  he  would  not  consider  other  than  single, 


Left:  The  first  practical  cash  register,  made  by  James  Ritty.  Right:  The  first  cash  register  turned  out  by  the  N.  C.  R.  Co.  Notice 

the  added  cash  drawer 


Left:  The  second  type  of  register,  with  the  detail  adder,  turned  out  by  the  N.  C.  R.  Co. 

Right:  The  cash  register  of  to-day 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  55 


undivided  authority  in  the  management  of  any  enterprise. 
In  his  own  he  was  the  single  authority.  His  advocacy  of 
the  City  Manager  plan  grew  out  of  the  same  devotion  to 
centralized  power.  But  that  is  getting  ahead  of  the  story. 
His  initiation  fee  into  high  finance  was  three  years 
of  hard  work  and  twenty-four  thousand  dollars  in  real 
money. 

In  the  next  couple  of  months  the  Pattersons  bought 
4,705  acres  of  land  in  Jackson  County  for  which  their 
backers  put  up  $100,635.80  in  cash  and  $76,770.25  in 
promissory  notes.  Then  Messrs.  Corse  and  Ballou  pro¬ 
posed  the  organization  of  a  mining  company  to  be  known 
as  the  Southern  Ohio  Coal  and  Iron  Company  with 
$1,500,000  in  common  stock  and  $400,000  in  bonds. 
The  Pattersons  were  to  manage  the  property  and  Corse 
and  Ballou  were  to  do  all  the  financing;  of  the  bonds 
$110,000  went  to  the  promoters  for  the  coal  lands  that 
had  been  bought,  $40,000  to  the  Pattersons  for  their 
mines  and  cars,  while  the  remaining  bonds  were  to  pay 
off  notes  and  mortgages  and  to  open  new  mines  and  stores. 
General  Corse  as  president  of  the  railway  said  that  he 
would  extend  its  facilities  to  handle  sixteen  hundred  tons 
a  day.  John  Patterson  said  that  he  could  sell  that 
amount  daily  and  figured  that  the  company  ought  to  turn 
a  profit  of  $345,000  a  year.  With  these  rosy  prospects 
they  started  business. 

John  Patterson  treated  the  new  company  exactly  as 
though  he  were  its  sole  owner  and  he  was  everlastingly 
on  the  job.  His  characteristics  began  to  develop.  He 
planned  each  day  in  advance.  At  breakfast  he  made  up 
his  schedule  of  work,  and  every  item  of  work  on  the  sched¬ 
ule  had  to  be  done  before  he  went  to  bed.  He  had 
breakfast  about  six  in  the  morning — he  lived  with  his 


56 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


brothers  Steve  and  Frank  at  his  mother’s  home  on 
Third  Street.  If  he  were  going  to  the  mines,  Otto  Nelson 
had  to  have  a  horse  and  buggy  ready  for  him  to  make  the 
7 :10  train — which  was  the  only  morning  train  on  the  rail¬ 
way.  He  went  to  bed  whenever  the  work  for  the  day  was 
done — which  was  often  well  past  midnight.  He  began  to 
subordinate  all  else  to  his  work.  I  am  told  that  when  he 
went  to  a  party  at  night  he  would  often  fidget  about  for 
a  while  and  then  excuse  himself  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
important  work  to  do  at  his  office.  Later  in  life  he  rarely 
went  to  any  social  affair  that  did  not  have  to  do  with  his 
business,  but  in  these  days  he  went  about  a  great  deal  and 
was  in  the  way  of  being  a  leader  in  Dayton  society.  He 
burned  the  candle  at  both  ends.  This  is  probably  why, 
years  afterward,  he  discouraged  executives  from  enter¬ 
ing  into  any  social  activity  that  might  keep  them  up  late 
at  night. 

He  went  to  bed  whenever  the  day’s  work  was  done  and 
not  before — he  required  very  little  sleep  and  took  as  little 
as  required — probably  he  did  not  average  more  than  six 
hours.  He  ate  whatever  he  liked  and  as  much  as  he 
wanted — which  was  a  good  deal,  for  he  had  one  hundred 
and  seventy  pounds  of  muscle  and  energy  to  sustain. 
He  smoked  to  some  extent  but  not  a  great  deal,  and  also 
he  was  not  a  total  abstainer.  In  short,  he  lived  at  this 
time  about  as  did  the  average  man,  excepting  that  he  put 
work  first.  He  had  practically  no  recreation  and  did  not 
seem  to  want  any.  Outdoor  games  of  all  kinds  did  not 
interest  him  and  he  did  not  like  cards  or  billiards. 

He  had  no  close  friends  or  companions,  but  not  because 
he  did  not  like  to  be  with  people.  He  wanted  to  be  with 
people  in  order  to  learn  from  them,  but  the  moment  they 
had  nothing  more  in  the  way  of  information  to  give  him 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  57 


he  wanted  to  be  on  his  way.  All  his  thinking  had  to  be 
done  in  solitude — later  when  his  affairs  became  large  he 
worked  out  most  of  his  important  plans  in  the  middle  of 
the  night  in  bed. 

In  the  particular  period  of  his  life  which  we  now  are  re¬ 
viewing  he  had  not  yet  learned  that  a  plan  is  only  a  plan 
until  it  is  put  into  operation  and  that  it  could  not  go  into  full 
operation  without  the  help  of  convinced  human  beings. 
He  thought  that  everyone  ought  to  recognize  a  good  plan 
as  good,  and  he  got  into  quite  a  little  trouble  by  forgetting 
that  to  gain  real  cooperation  he  had  to  put  his  people 
through  the  same  step-by-step  mental  processes  that  he 
had  gone  through  to  reach  his  conclusion.  He  had  al¬ 
ready  gained  a  reputation  for  being  self-willed,  and  very 
few  of  his  fellow  townspeople  recognized  that  what  ap¬ 
peared  to  be  merely  whims  were  always  founded  upon  a 
process  of  reasoning — be  the  reasoning  good  or  bad.  It 
was  impossible  to  shake  his  opinions  by  opposition — he 
regarded  every  sort  of  brute-force  opposition  as  a  chal¬ 
lenge.  But  it  was  possible  to  show  him  that  he  was  wrong 
and  he  would  reverse  himself  in  an  instant.  For  John 
Patterson,  curiously  enough,  never  had  any  pride  of 
opinion;  he  was  for  some  idea  not  because  it  was  his  but 
because  it  was  right;  show  him  that  the  idea  was  wrong 
and  he  was  for  the  new  right  just  as  energetically  as  he 
had  been  for  the  old  right. 

The  mine  store  gave  him  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  He 
could  not  understand  what  was  the  matter  with  it. 

“We  were  doing  a  business  of  forty-eight  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  per  year,  with  almost  no  competition,  and  our  prices 
were  high.  The  surprising  thing,  however,  was  that  at 
the  end  of  each  year  we  could  see  no  improvement  in 
our  finances.  In  fact,  we  were  running  behind.  We  had 


58 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


no  bad  debts  and  paid  cash  for  all  our  goods.  We  found 
that  our  net  profits  should  have  been  about  twelve 
thousand  dollars  per  year.  But  at  the  end  of  three  years 
we  not  only  had  not  declared  a  dividend  but  we  had  lost 
three  thousand  dollars  and  were  in  debt  over  sixteen 
thousand  dollars.  We  tried  to  give  our  interest  away  to 
any  one  who  would  agree  to  pay  the  debts.  We  had  no 
takers.  And  yet  not  a  dollar  was  stolen.  Where  did  the 
profits  go?  This  was  a  problem  no  one  seemed  able  to 
solve. 

“  I  went  on  a  tour  of  inspection.  I  soon  found  that  cer¬ 
tain  miners  waited  to  buy  from  certain  clerks.  This  was 
the  clue  that  led  me  on.  Taking  a  miner’s  basket,  I 
found  him  charged  with  only  half  the  goods  he  actually 
received.  I  kicked  three  of  the  clerks  into  the  street, 
and  sent  the  superintendent  of  the  store  coatless  after 
them.  I  realized  that  I  had  adopted  a  wrong  plan  in 
giving  a  reward  to  the  clerk  who  sold  the  most  goods. 
They  were  giving  away  goods  in  order  to  get  personal 
following.  We  had  had  the  most  popular  clerks  in  Coal- 
ton.  The  coal  miners  were  loud  in  their  praise  of  them.” 

Mr.  Patterson  was  at  his  wits’  end.  He  had  to  re¬ 
organize  the  store  but  he  did  not  know  how  to  ensure 
against  the  old  evils  unless  he  stayed  there  himself,  and 
that  he  could  not  do.  He  wanted  some  sort  of  a  check 
on  the  new  clerks  that  he  hired.  He  heard  of  a  machine 
to  register  sales  that  was  being  made  in  Dayton.  He 
wired  for  two  of  them  without  inquiring  how  much  they 
cost.  They  came  in  the  form  of  wooden  cabinets  equipped 
with  keys  that  punched  holes  in  a  roll  of  paper.  They 
were  billed  at  fifty  dollars  each,  which  was  surely  high 
enough  considering  the  small  amount  of  mechanism. 
Everyone  but  John  Patterson  was  for  sending  them  back. 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  59 


He  said  flatly  that  he  did  not  care  how  much  they  cost 
if  they  would  check  the  business  and  stop  the  losses. 

“I  employed  a  new  superintendent  of  the  store  and  ex¬ 
plained  the  registers  to  him.  A  few  days  later  I  tested  the 
system.  The  holes  in  the  paper  tallied  with  the  cash 
drawer.  In  fact,  they  tallied  too  well.  There  was  no 
allowance  for  human  error.  I  put  a  spotter  on  the  super¬ 
intendent.  The  man  had  worked  out  a  system  for  him¬ 
self.  He  did  not  register  all  the  sales,  but  at  night 
counted  the  cash  and  credit  sales  and  worked  the  register 
to  balance  with  the  amount.  We  fired  the  superintendent 
and  sent  for  a  long-haired  bushman  twenty  miles  back  in 
the  woods.  We  explained  the  registers  to  him  and  told 
him  that  that  was  the  main  thing  we  wanted  him  to  look 
after.  The  result  was  that  in  six  months  we  reduced  our 
debt  from  sixteen  thousand  to  three  thousand  dollars  and 
our  books  showed  a  profit  of  over  five  thousand  dollars. 
The  registers  did  it  all.” 

Which  is  how  John  Patterson  met  with  the  cash  register. 
This  was  in  May,  1882. 

The  registers  worked  so  well  at  Coalton  that  Mr. 
Patterson  bought  a  couple  more  to  try  out  in  the  retail 
coal  yards  all  of  which  did  quite  a  little  cash  business, 
for  those  who  could  not  afford  to  buy  coal  by  the  ton 
would  buy  fifty  or  twenty-five  or  even  ten  cents’ worth  and 
take  it  away  in  a  wheelbarrow.  In  those  days  it  was 
possible  to  get  a  discernible  amount  of  coal  for  ten  cents. 
The  farmers  would  drive  in  on  their  way  out  to  the 
country  to  buy  a  dollar’s  or  two  dollars’  worth.  The 
bookkeeping  of  the  concern  was  done  at  Office“A”;  each 
morning  a  clerk  from  the  main  office  made  the  rounds 
of  the  branch  offices  to  collect  the  money  taken  in  the 
day  before.  The  branch  offices  did  not  attempt  to  run 


60 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


accounts;  they  just  took  in  the  money  as  it  came  and 
tossed  it  into  a  drawer.  There  was  no  check  of  any 
kind. 

Mr.  Patterson,  and  it  is  necessary  always  to  bear  this 
in  mind,  did  not  believe  it  was  fair  either  to  the  employer 
or  the  employee  to  have  an  open,  unchecked  cash  account 
with  the  employee.  If  he  had  not  believed  that  with  all 
his  soul  he  would  never  have  made  the  cash  register  his 
life  work.  But  he  put  these  two  registers  into  the  coal 
yards  with  some  diffidence,  for  the  employees  there  were 
of  a  different  class  from  the  men  in  the  Coalton  store.  He 
made  a  little  speech  to  them: 

“Now,  I  don’t  want  you  boys  to  think  that  I  am 
putting  this  register  in  because  I  think  there  is  anything 
wrong.  I  have  absolute  confidence  in  everybody  here. 
It  will  be  a  means  of  checking  up  the  cash,  preventing 
mistakes,  and  provide  a  method  to  balance  up  the  cash 
at  night.” 

The  register  did  not  have  a  cash  drawer  and  the  money 
taken  in  was  registered  and  placed  in  a  separate  drawer. 
After  using  the  register  the  first  day,  the  collector  came 
the  next  morning  to  take  the  cash,  receipt  tickets,  and 
charges  to  the  main  office.  He  found  the  cash  two  dollars 
less  than  the  registered  amount. 

“Well,”  said  Mr.  Patterson,  “being  something  new 
probably  they  made  a  mistake  and  registered  some  sales 
more  than  once.  Probably  it  is  a  good  thing  to  make  a 
mistake  the  first  day.  It  will  teach  them  to  be  careful 
right  from  the  start.” 

The  next  morning  the  cash  was  again  two  dollars  short. 

“You  must  be  more  careful,”  warned  Mr.  Patterson. 
“The  same  mistake  has  been  made  for  two  successive 
days.” 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  61 


The  third  morning  the  cash  was  again  two  dollars  short. 
Mr.  Patterson  began  to  get  more  interested. 

“What  is  the  trouble  here?  It  is  strange  we  are  just 
exactly  two  dollars  short  every  day.  Let’s  try  the  ma¬ 
chine.” 

He  tried  the  two-dollar  key  and  all  the  keys  that  would 
add  up  to  two  dollars.  He  made  a  number  of  registra¬ 
tions,  and  said: 

“Everything  works  right.  This  shortage  is  due  to 
carelessness  or  else  somebody  is  taking  the  money.” 

The  cash  drawer  was  inspected  to  see  if  rats  could  get 
in  and  carry  the  money  away. 

Then  Mr.  Patterson  said: 

“Let’s  start  systematically  and  find  out  exactly  what 
is  wrong.  We  will  balance  the  cash  with  the  register 
every  two  hours  and  find  out  what  time  the  money  dis¬ 
appears.” 

They  balanced  the  cash  every  two  hours  with  never  a 
mistake.  They  closed  the  office  for  the  night.  The  next 
morning  the  cash  was  two  dollars  short! 

Mr.  Patterson  hired  a  policeman  to  watch  the  office 
that  night.  When  the  cash  was  counted  the  next  morn¬ 
ing,  it  was  again  two  dollars  short. 

“Who  was  here  last  night?”  asked  Mr.  Patterson. 

“There  was  nobody  here,”  replied  the  officer.  “I  sat 
where  I  could  see  the  door  all  the  time.  I  know  nobody 
was  in  there.” 

“But,”  said  Mr.  Patterson,  “this  is  mysterious.  Two 
dollars  has  gone  since  the  time  we  locked  up  the  office. 
To-night  make  sure  you  don’t  lose  sight  of  the  office  at 
any  time.  Don’t  let  anybody  unlock  the  office  in  the 
morning  until  I  come.” 

The  next  morning  when  he  came  he  called  the  officer, 


62 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


went  into  the  office,  and  opened  the  cash  drawer  himself. 
The  money  was  two  dollars  short. 

“Now,  who  was  in  here  last  night?”  he  asked. 

“There  was  nobody  here,”  answered  the  policeman, 
“except,  of  course,  the  night  watchman.” 

“Night  watchman!”  exclaimed  Mr.  Patterson.  “We 
haven’t  any  night  watchman.” 

“Why,  he’s  been  watching  the  office  here  for  five  years.” 

“We  let  him  go  two  years  ago.  We  figured  that  it  cost 
us  two  dollars  a  night  for  a  watchman  and  we  decided 
that  his  services  would  not  save  us  that  much.” 

“He’s  been  coming  here  every  night,”  answered  the 
dazed  officer.  “That’s  the  reason  I  did  not  say  any¬ 
thing  about  his  being  here  last  night.  I  supposed  you 
knew  it.” 

“When  he  comes  to-night,  arrest  him,”  instructed  Mr. 
Patterson. 

The  man  came  around  that  night  as  usual  and  the 
policeman  arrested  him.  He  confessed  that  he  had  been 
collecting  what  he  deemed  his  pay  for  two  years — ever 
since  he  had  been  discharged.  Then  Mr.  Patterson  or¬ 
dered  him  released — he  said  it  was  his  fault  for  letting 
temptation  get  into  the  man’s  way.  But  this  register 
had  caught  a  loss  of  twelve  hundred  dollars  that  the  books 
could  not  show  and  saved  a  further  levy  of  two  dollars  a 
day  from  the  curiously  methodical  pilferer. 

The  cash  registers  which  the  Pattersons  bought  were 
rough  affairs  in  the  first  stages  of  development,  which  had 
been  made  by  the  National  Manufacturing  Company  of 
Dayton  as  assignees  of  a  patent  obtained  by  James  Ritty. 
Ritty  was  a  Dayton  saloon  keeper;  on  a  voyage  to  Europe 
he  went  down  into  the  engine  room  of  the  vessel  and 
was  much  impressed  by  the  indicator  which  tallied  the 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  63 


revolutions  of  the  propeller  shaft.  He  thought  that 
something  of  the  kind  might  be  worked  out  to  keep  the 
records  of  cash  sales  in  a  store. 

When  he  returned,  he  gave  the  idea  to  his  brother,  a 
machinist,  and  the  two  of  them  in  1879  worked  out  what 
they  called  a  cash  register.  They  applied  for  a  patent 
which  was  subsequently  adjudicated  to  be  a  basic  one. 
The  register  was  made  in  two  styles,  one  with  keys  reading 
from  one  cent  to  twenty  dollars  and  the  other  in  multiples 
of  five  cents  for  use  in  bars.  In  the  cabinet  of  the  register 
was  a  wide  roll  of  paper  ruled  in  columns — a  column  for 
each  key.  When  a  key  was  pressed,  it  punched  a  hole 
in  the  corresponding  column  of  the  roll,  rang  a  bell,  and 
raised  a  tin  indicator  to  show  to  the  customer  what 
amount  had  been  registered. 

When  the  day’s  business  was  over,  the  proprietor  un¬ 
locked  the  cabinet,  removed  the  roll,  and  counted  the 
holes,  multiplied  each  by  the  figure  for  the  column,  and 
then  struck  a  total  which  would  represent  the  amount  of 
cash  that  ought  to  be  on  hand. 

Several  other  registers  had  been  invented  before  Ritty’s 
but  his  basic  feature  was  the  mechanism  which  caused 
the  indicator  of  the  amount  previously  registered  to  drop 
when  a  new  registration  was  made.  None  of  the  other 
registers  had  that  essential  feature. 

Ritty  made  his  first  registers  in  a  little  shop  on  East 
First  Street,  Dayton,  in  1879.  He  could  not  make  it  a 
success  and  in  a  little  while  sold  out  to  J.  H.  Eckert  for 
one  thousand  dollars.  Eckert  moved  to  the  Rouser 
Building  on  Wyandotte  Street,  but  he  likewise  had  neither 
the  capital  nor  the  skill  to  promote  so  new  a  device, 
and  in  about  a  year  he  sold  out  to  the  National  Manu¬ 
facturing  Company,  which  was  composed  of  seven  citizens 


64 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


of  Dayton  with  a  paid-in  capital  of  twelve  thousand 
dollars.  The  organizers,  who  were  also  the  directors,  were 
William  Kiefaber,  Gus.  W.  Sander,  Mary  M.  Eckert,  Ben 
W.  Early,  William  Sander,  John  Birch,  and  Charles 
Whealen.  Gus  Sander  was  president  and  J.  E.  Gimperling 
was  in  charge  of  the  factory.  They  moved  the  factory 
to  the  Osceola  Mill  Building  at  320  East  Fifth  Street. 
As  a  factory  it  did  not  amount  to  much.  It  had  nine 
employees  and  only  three  or  four  pieces  of  machinery, 
including  a  lathe  which  was  used  by  James  Ritty  when  he 
built  the  first  cash  register.  Edward  Faulkner,  who  ran 
it,  is  still  with  the  N.  C.  R.  The  lathe  is  in  the  company 
museum.  Up  to  the  time  that  the  National  Manufactur¬ 
ing  Company  was  organized,  about  nineteen  machines 
had  been  sold  by  Ritty  and  Eckert,  of  which  the  Patter¬ 
sons  had  bought  four. 

In  April,  1883,  the  company  made  an  improvement  on 
the  register  called  the  “detail  adder.”  As  I  have  noted, 
the  only  way  to  find  the  totals  registered  by  the  machine 
was  to  add  up  the  holes  punched  in  the  paper.  The  new 
adding  attachment  did  this  adding  automatically,  al¬ 
though  still  in  separate  columns,  by  a  series  of  adding 
wheels  which  showed  in  the  case  above  the  key  the 
number  of  times  that  the  key  had  been  pressed.  Instead 
of  going  over  the  big  sheet  of  paper  which  was  often  a 
laborious  job — for  a  busy  day  would  produce  a  punched 
sheet  twenty  feet  long — the  owner  now  had  only  to  take 
off  the  numbers  registered,  multiply  them  by  the  cur¬ 
rency  denominations  they  represented,  and  add  them 
up  to  get  the  total  registration.  It  was  a  cumbersome 
enough  process  but  an  infinite  improvement  on  the  paper 
roll. 

The  company  needed  more  money  to  manufacture  the 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  65 


new  design  and  decided  to  increase  the  capital  stock  to 
fifteen  thousand  dollars.  The  Pattersons  bought  all  of 
the  new  issue — fifty  shares  in  all — for  twenty-five  hundred 
dollars — John  and  Frank  sharing  alike.  This  was  on 
May  8,  1883.  John  was  behind  the  purchase;  he  thought 
that  the  cash  register  was  a  great  idea.  But  the  state¬ 
ment  issued  by  the  company  early  in  1884  showed  a  loss 
and  Frank  Patterson  advised  that  the  stock  be  sold  for 
what  it  would  bring.  The  brothers  managed  to  get  rid 
of  all  but  twenty-two  shares  and  were  lucky  enough  to 
get  just  what  they  had  paid. 

Up  to  this  time,  about  fifty  registers  in  all  had  been 
sold.  The  company  at  the  time  of  the  increase  in  capi¬ 
talization  had  moved  to  the  second  floor  of  the  Callahan 
Power  Building  up  Artz  Alley.  It  had  only  one  regular 
agent,  Robert  Callahan  in  Washington,  and  it  had  done 
no  advertising.  The  only  selling  plan  was  to  offer  a 
commission  to  each  owner  of  a  register  if  he  could  induce 
a  sale.  Any  one  could  be  an  agent  and  get  a  commission 
if  he  made  a  sale. 

The  coal  business  was  not  going  well.  The  promoters 
seem  to  have  fallen  down  on  their  contracts.  They  did 
not  sell  the  bonds;  John  Patterson  had  to  sell  many  of 
them  himself.  Before  the  enterprise  was  a  year  old  (on 
March  20,  1882)  he  wrote  to  George  W.  Ballou: 

I  have  sold  40  bonds  at  85,  upon  the  condition  that  all  stock  sold  up 
to  $20,000  should  be  donated  to  the  Coal  &  Iron  Company.  This 
was  the  only  condition  upon  which  the  parties  would  take  the  bonds 
or  stock.  The  stock  thus  far  sold  has  netted  $15,000  which  was 
turned  over  to  the  Coal  &  Iron  Company.  We  have  paid  $24,000 
on  liens  on  the  property  General  Corse  bought.  We  borrowed 
$10,000  on  my  individual  note,  secured  by  twenty  bonds.  I  am 
ready  to  put  up  the  balance  of  stock  in  trust  just  as  soon  as  the  debts 


66 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


are  paid,  or  provided  for,  that  is,  the  note  General  Corse  gave  and 
the  construction  debt.  We  have  left  about  $1,100,000  stock,  part  of 
which,  say  about  $100,000,  is  promised,  leaving  about  $1,000,000  for 
the  pool. 

We  expect  to  place  about  $100,000  bonds  yet  unsold  and  trust 
to  be  able  to  save  $900,000  for  the  pool.  We  have  had  a  hard  time  of 
it  to  pull  through  and  if  we  could  place  about  90  more  bonds,  we 
would  be  in  good  shape.  We  have  not  yet  settled  the  note  at  Boston 
House  for  $6,000  and  desire  you  to  take  that  amount  of  bond.  There 
are  seven  left  there  which  Darling  promised  to  sell.  I  have  had  a  big 
load  to  carry,  Mr.  Ballou,  and  I  trust  you  will  have  Darling  take  the 
bonds  on  a  subscription  and  that  you  will  take  twenty  of  these  bonds 
on  your  account.  This  would  relieve  us  greatly.  Please  answer. 
Had  the  Darling  subscription  of  $275,000  not  dwindled  down  to 
$156,000  I  would  have  pulled  through  without  any  assistance.  I 
have  made  my  expenditures  on  his  assurances  and  now  I  have  to 
shoulder  the  whole  load  alone.  I  have  faith  in  the  outcome  and  en¬ 
dorse  the  Company’s  papers,  but  the  sale  of  25  or  30  bonds  would 
lessen  my  burden  greatly.  Please  answer. 

John  Patterson  had  agreed  to  sell  sixteen  hundred  tons 
a  day  and  General  Corse  had  agreed  to  equip  the  railway 
to  handle  that  tonnage.  Patterson  sold  the  coal  but  Corse 
never  got  the  tonnage  above  three  hundred  a  day  and 
could  not  steadily  maintain  even  that  amount.  The 
Pattersons  had  made  contracts  to  deliver  large  quantities 
of  coal  and,  the  railway  failing  them,  they  had  to  make 
many  deliveries  by  buying  from  other  operators  and  at  a 
loss  running  as  high  as  sixty-five  cents  a  ton.  They  lost 
thousands  of  dollars  making  good  their  deliveries. 

Things  went  from  bad  to  worse;  John  Patterson  had  not 
the  control  and  he  did  not  want  to  buy  it — even  if  he 
could  have  raised  the  money.  He  and  Frank  talked  it 
over  and  decided  to  get  out.  In  March,  1884,  they  sold 
their  interests  in  the  Southern  Coal  and  Iron  Company  to 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  67 


a  man  named  McNab  of  Gloversville,  New  York,  and  in 
April  they  sold  their  retail  coal  business  to  L.  Caten — 
McNab’s  partner — and  also  their  private  mining  interests, 
receiving  $7,750  for  the  coal  business  and  $16,000  for 
the  mines.  Both  prices  were  away  below  the  values. 
They  did  not  consult  their  Boston  friends.  They  just 
got  out.  The  story  of  the  adventure  appears  in  an  inter¬ 
change  of  letters  between  Frank  N.  Morse  of  Boston  and 
John  Patterson. 


Boston,  Apr.  11, 1884. 

Dear  Patterson: 

I  was  surprised  to  receive  your  letter  of  a  few  days  since  announcing 
your  retirement  from  the  management  of  the  Coal  Company. 

Since  your  letter  came  to  hand  I  have  been  shown  letters  from  a 
private  source,  containing  alleged  information  quite  contrary  to  the 
many  favourable  statements  you  have  made  about  the  property,  its 
earnings,  future  prospects,  etc. 

I  am  very  sorry  to  see  this — not  only  because  I  am  a  holder  of  the 
Company’s  bonds — (bought  on  the  strength  of  your  personal  letters 
to  me) — but  because  some  of  the  people  here  whom  you  might  con¬ 
sider  among  your  best  friends  in  this  section,  and  friendly  to  the 
enterprise,  look  upon  your  numerous  statements  and  private  letters 
as  calculated  to  deceive. 

The  information  I  refer  to  goes  on  to  say  that  the  Company  is  not 
in  a  favourable  condition  financially,  and  that  the  last  interest  on  the 
bonds  was  paid  by  money  which  you  borrowed  on  your  own  personal 
securities — also  that  the  Company  has  never  really  earned  this  in¬ 
terest. 

This  informant  further  insinuates  that  the  management  of  the 
Company  has  never  been  what  it  was  credited — evidenced  partly 
from  the  fact  that  other  properties  only  one  tenth  as  large — with  in¬ 
ferior  facilities — earned  nearly  if  not  quite  as  much  money  as  your 
Company — that  since  Jan.  1  the  earnings  were  barely  sufficient  to 
cover  operating  expenses  and  the  coming  July  interest  would  un¬ 
doubtedly  be  passed. 


68 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


I  am  also  told  that  you  sold  your  bonds — or  a  part  of  them,  say 
10 — in  this  city  at  48  flat  while  at  the  same  time  you  represented  to 
me  you  would  not  think  of  selling  your  bonds,  and  that  the  ones  you 
offered  did  not  belong  to  you  but  to  a  party  who  was  obliged  to  sell 
as  they  were  held  as  collateral  by  a  bank,  etc. 

I  merely  write  to  tell  you  that  I  hear  the  above  stated  rumors,  and 
many  more — not  that  I  believe — from  what  you  have  written  me 
personally — that  they  can  be  credited,  but  were  invented  for  some 
untold  motive — either  to  break  down  the  property  or  to  injure  your 
reputation;  I  should  like  very  much  to  know  the  inside  or  true  facts  of 
your  going  out  of  the  property  entirely,  not  only  for  my  own  informa¬ 
tion,  but  to  satisfy  several  prominent  holders  of  the  securities  here 
who  have  similar  information  which  they  are  not  disinclined  to  credit. 

Your  early  reply  will  very  much  oblige 

Very  truly  yours, 
(signed)  Frank  N.  Morse. 
To 

Jno.  H.  Patterson,  Esq., 

Dayton,  Ohio. 

To  this  Patterson,  writing  from  the  office  of  A.  A. 
Thomas  of  Dayton,  his  college  friend  as  well  as  his  lawyer, 
replied  with  some  heat: 


Dayton,  O.,  April  18, 1884. 

Dear  Sir: 

Your  letter  of  11th  at  hand.  I  cannot  and  will  not  attempt  the 
impossible  feat  of  answering  or  attempting  to  explain  insinuations — 
“from  a  private  source  containing  alleged  information”  contrary  to 
my  former  statements  to  you. 

I  have  sold  all  my  bonds  and  stock  and  am  out  of  the  S.  O.  C.  &  I. 
altogether.  I  expect  hereafter  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  The 
parties  to  whom  I  sold  think  they  can  do  better  with  it  than  I  did. 
I  think  they  can.  I  hope  they  will.  I  have  never  said  anything  about 
it  that  I  did  not  believe.  I  believe  I  have  never  made  any  representa¬ 
tions  of  facts  about  it  that  were  not  substantially  true.  I  have  been 
woefully  deceived  in  what  I  thought  I  could  quickly  accomplish  and 


GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  69 


still  more  so  in  the  promises  and  contracts  upon  which  I  was  induced 
to  go  into  the  enterprise.  I  have  done  the  best  I  could,  and  worked  to 
the  very  limit  of  my  strength.  I  have  sold  some  of  the  securities 
to  my  brother,  to  my  immediate  friends  here,  at  the  same  price  or 
higher  than  I  sold  them  for  in  the  east. 

Let  me  go  back  a  little  in  the  matter.  By  Mr.  Ballou  and  Gen. 
Corse  I  was  promised  all  the  money  necessary  for  the  enterprise, 
which  they  after  talking  with  me  sketched  out,  and  I  was  to  do  the 
work.  I  did  my  part  and  nine  tenths  of  theirs.  The  most  of  my 
time  which  was  greatly  needed  for  my  part  of  the  work  was  for  two 
years  taken  up  with  trying  to  raise  the  funds  which  they  had  promised. 
After  I  had  pledged  by  mortgaging  my  entire  property,  both  personal 
and  real  estate,  on  the  success  of  the  scheme,  Mr.  Ballou  in  the  face 
of  a  written  contract  refused  to  act  on  any  idea  but  that  he  had  an 
option  to  stand  by  me  if  I  succeeded,  or  to  abandon  me  if  it  appeared 
that  I  could  not.  Gen.  Corse  let  go  the  railroad,  and  during  the 
administrations  of  T.  A.  Phillips  and  E.  E.  Dwight,  I  had  constant 
and  ruinous  hostility  from  them  and  their  officers.  T.  A.  Phillips 
always  claimed  that  he  acted  under  orders  of  R.  M.  Pomeroy.  The 
property  was  started  on  a  large  scale,  and  the  positive  promise  of 
sufficient  and  efficient  railway  service.  I  suppose  this  railroad  service 
of  this  property,  and  by  that  I  mean  the  Narrow  Gauge  R.  R.  from 
Jackson  County  to  every  place  it  ran,  has  been  the  most  miserable 
and  inefficient  ever  known  by  business  men  in  the  west.  It  would 
break  up,  and  will  yet,  any  business  wholly  dependent  upon  it  as  ours 
was  for  a  long  time.  It  broke  itself  up,  and  its  bonds  to-day  are 
selling  at  about  the  value  of  the  old  iron  in  its  track.  The  conse¬ 
quence  to  us  was  that  we  lost  our  business  several  times  which  cost 
us  money  to  get  over  and  over  again.  When  we  could  make  money 
largely  and  quick,  we  could  not  get  the  service  done.  T.  A.  Phillips 
sidetracked  our  own  cars,  and  reduced  the  mileage  price  upon  them 
one  half,  and  then  would  distribute  them  to  all  the  other  mines  not 
ours.  He  bought  our  coal  for  railroad  use  and  neglected  to  pay  us 
and  held  on  to  our  rebates  till  he  owed  us  $19,000  when  we  abandoned 
the  contract.  The  Delphos  Trust  held  $40,000  of  our  bonds,  and  its 
owners  and  directors  never  lifted  one  finger  to  help  us  in  any  way,  but 
their  influence  for  one  year  after  they  had  received  their  bonds  was 
against  us.  Now  as  to  profits  and  payments  of  interest,  all  I  have  to 


70 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


say  is,  we  paid  it,  and  we  made  the  money  to  pay  it  with.  It  was 
known  to  all  who  had  a  right  to  know  and  inquire  that  a  business  of  the 
extent  of  this,  that  is  with  a  sale  of  from  40  to  50  cars  per  day,  could 
not  be  done  without  a  capital  to  carry  it  which  was  never  provided 
for  or  given  me.  I  believe  when  I  sold,  and  at  any  time  previous, 
the  Company  could  pay  its  debts  including  interest,  and  owe  not  a 
dollar  but  the  principal  of  the  bonds.  I  did  on  January  1st  last,  in 
order  to  keep  necessary  money  in  the  business,  borrow  some  money 
to  pay  part  of  the  interest  due  on  coupons  by  giving  my  individual 
security,  but  there  was  cash  coming  in  to  pay  it,  which  has  already 
been  done. 

Now  a  word  as  to  the  property  itself  and  the  security  of  the  bonds. 
The  titles  of  the  Co.’s  lands  are  all  good  and  as  represented.  Such 
land  so  located  is  scarce  and  valuable.  It  is  rapidly  getting  scarcer. 
Some  of  the  mineral  and  coal  developed  better  than  we  expected,  some 
of  it  not  so  good  as  we  hoped.  As  a  whole,  I  believe  our  experience 
with  it  fully  sustained  our  expectations.  I  see  no  reason  why  it  can¬ 
not  with  proper  railroad  treatment  and  service  be  made  profitable, 
nor  why  any  bondholders  should  sacrifice  their  holdings. 

Now,  a  word  as  to  other  smaller  properties  making  as  much  money. 
The  answer  to  that  is,  it  is  not  true,  and  if  it  were  it  proves  nothing, 
for  our  property  was  put  together  for  permanence  and  continuing  and 
future  value  rather  than  for  immediate  profit.  It  don’t  take  re¬ 
markable  insight  to  know  that  you  can  take  ten  acres  of  coal  land 
and  open  two  small  mines  on  it  or  three,  and  for  a  year  or  two  make 
more  money  on  the  investment  than  we  did  on  our  plan  or  could. 
But  it  would  soon  be  gone  and  over. 

Now  a  word  as  to  my  profit  in  the  business.  For  all  my  labour 
I  never  made  any;  I  put  in  more  than  I  took  out;  I  made  no  money  off 
any  man  by  selling  him  bonds  or  stock. 

Now  as  to  my  selling  out.  Parties  largely  interested  in  the  Co. 
were  dissatisfied  with  what  I  accomplished.  I  was.  They  wanted 
to  take  control  and  buy  me  out,  and  I  sold  at  a  price  practically 
fixed  by  them  for  this  purpose.  You  may  show  this  letter  to  whom 
you  see  fit,  but  I  respectfully  request  that  you  will  never  again  ask 
me  to  answer  what  you  call  “the  alleged  information  and  insinua¬ 
tions”  of  anonymous  parties. 


(signed)  John  H.  Patterson. 


“WELL,  INDEED!” 

“The  two  words  were  danger  signals — they  were  the  precursors  of  a  storm. 
Those  who  knew  Mr.  Patterson  well  always  looked  around  for  cover  when  he  spoke 
those  words.” 


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GETTING  THE  BUSINESS  UNDER  WAY  71 


To  this  Morse  replied: 

Boston,  April  26,  1884. 

Dear  Patterson: 

Your  favors  are  received.  I  never  fully  understood  the  position 
of  the  So.  O.  C.  &  I.  Co.,  although  of  course  I  was  somewhat  familiar 
with  its  organization,  etc.  The  first  intimation  of  any  change  in  the 
management  was  from  your  letter  and  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  L. 
Caten  of  Gloversville,  N.  Y. 

Mr.  Caten  and  Mr.  McNab  I  find  are  taking  a  very  peculiar  posi¬ 
tion.  The  former  has  written  a  letter  to  a  party  here  in  which  he 
makes  all  sorts  of  statements,  not  particularly  favorable  to  the  Co.; 
at  the  same  time  Mr.  McNab  (they  are  partners,  I  think)  is  buying 
up  stock  around  $2.50  per  share  and  has  recently  bought  bonds. 
This  I  can’t  understand,  his  actions  being  at  variance  with  his  state¬ 
ments.  Can  you  explain  it?  He  gives  the  impression  that  the  Co. 
has  never  earned  its  interest  and  that  in  all  probability  the  July  in¬ 
terest  will  be  passed. 

We  naturally  have  a  great  many  inquiries  about  the  enterprise, 
but  I  don’t  think  it  will  be  best  to  show  your  letter  to  anybody,  for 
reason  that  I  always  think  a  verbal  explanation  more  safe  and  satis¬ 
factory. 

I  would  like  you  to  see  the  letter  I  refer  to — I  can  get  a  copy  I  think 
and  will  let  you  see  it  when  you  are  here. 

What  are  you  going  into  now?  Let  me  hear  fronTyou  if  anything 
new  turns  up — and  I  will  keep  you  posted  at  this  end.  Thanks  for 
the  check;  it  is  entirely  satisfactory. 

I  am,  yours  truly, 

(Signed)  Frank  H.  Morse. 
To 

Jno.  H.  Patterson,  Esq., 

Dayton,  O. 

“What  are  you  going  into  now?”  That  was  the  ques¬ 
tion  which  John  Patterson  was  also  asking  himself.  With 
all  his  debts  paid,  he  had  $16,000.  This  was  what  re¬ 
mained  of  an  investment  of  $40,000  and  three  years’  work. 
And  he  had  no  answer  to  “  What  are  you  going  into  now?  ” 


CHAPTER  V 


BREAKING  OUT  OF  BUSINESS  AND  BREAKING  IN  AGAIN 

JOHN  H.  PATTERSON  was  forty  years  old.  He 
had  sixteen  thousand  dollars  in  cash  and  a  sort  of 
a  business  training  which  he  had  worked  out  in  his 
own  way  and  which  was  quite  unlike  any  one  else’s  training 
— so  unlike  that  it  was  generally  denied  that  he  had  any 
training.  He  was  thought  merely  to  have  notions.  The 
only  thing  he  knew  anything  about  was  coal,  and  the  coal 
business  was  the  only  one  in  the  world  that  he  would  not 
even  consider  going  into  again.  He  had  not  married. 
He  was  foot  loose  and  fancy  free.  And  one  is  not  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  that  way  at  forty. 

The  kind  of  business  knowledge  he  had  accumulated 
was  entirely  peculiar  to  himself,  but  although  he  did  not 
know  it  and  no  one  else  knew  it,  it  was  exactly  the  sort  of 
knowledge  that  was  most  needful  in  the  work  that  he  was 
later  to  undertake.  His  principles  were  forming  out  of  his 
experience.  Of  course  in  later  years  he  added  much  to 
the  volume  of  his  experience,  but  every  primary  principle 
on  which  he  later  built  success  may  be  traced  back  to 
something  that  happened  to  him  on  the  farm,  in  the 
canal  collector’s  office,  or  in  the  coal  business.  He  had 
made  a  success  of  retail  coal  selling  by  pulling  himself 
out  of  the  ordinary  run  of  coal  merchants — by  doing 
things  they  never  thought  of  doing,  such  as  providing 
turnouts  which  delivered  coal  as  though  it  were  jewellery. 
He  had  already  fixed  in  his  mind  the  principles  which  he 

72 


OUT  OF  BUSINESS  AND  IN  AGAIN  73 


expressed:  “To  accomplish  an  unusual  end  do  the  un¬ 
usual  thing.” 

The  wholesale  coal  business;  the  management  of  a 
mining  and  selling  corporation,  was  a  failure,  not  because 
he  did  not  do  his  part  but  because  he  had  to  depend  on 
others,  especially  for  financing.  He  did  not  have  control. 
He  never  forgot  that  lesson,  as  I  noted  in  the  last  chapter. 
He  advised  all  of  his  people  never  to  go  into  any  business 
which  they  could  not  control.  This  is  not  at  all  a  principle 
of  universal  application  and  it  would  be  quite  impossible 
for  every  man  absolutely  to  control  whatever  he  is  en¬ 
gaged  in.  Mr.  Patterson  knew  that,  but  he  thought  a 
man  ought  either  to  work  for  himself  or  work  for  someone 
else.  He  thought  it  improper  for  a  man  to  have  the  title 
of  boss  without  being  the  real  boss.  This  was  his  inter¬ 
pretation  of  the  impossibility  of  serving  two  masters. 
What  he  was  really  opposed  to  was  absentee  ownership 
of  the  kind  that  he  had  been  up  against.  And  he  was 
sincerely  afraid  of  erecting  any  power  in  his  own  business 
which  would  challenge  his  own.  That  seems  to  be  a 
feeling  universal  with  the  founders  of  enterprises.  It  is 
true  with  Ford;  it  was  true  with  the  late  John  Wana- 
maker,  J.  P.  Morgan  Marshall  Field,  P.  D.  Armour, 
E.  H.  Harriman,  J.  J.  Hill — with  all  the  pioneers. 

Mr.  Patterson  carried  his  thought  so  far  that  he  did 
not  want  any  associate  to  approach  a  position  of  equal 
authority.  As  he  expressed  it  very  well  to  Jake 
Oswald : 

“When  we  get  to  the  point  where  all  depends  on  one 
man,  let’s  fire  him.” 

And  that  is  exactly  what  he  did,  and  that  is  one  reason 
why  the  alumni  of  the  National  Cash  Register  Company 
have  so  generally  made  good,  for  he  hardly  ever  took  the 


74 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


trouble  to  fire  a  man  who  had  not  sufficient  mental  force 
and  ability  to  work  himself  into  a  position  of  central  au¬ 
thority.  That  is  the  reason  he  fired  Henry  Theobald,  the 
president  of  the  Toledo  Scale  Company;  Jacob  Oswald, 
president  of  the  Roto-Speed  Company;  Colonel  E.  A. 
Deeds,  Hugh  Chalmers;  Thomas  J.  Watson,  president  of 
the  Computing-Tabulating-Recording  Company;  and  so 
on  through  a  long  list.  It  will  be  noted  that  every  one  of 
these  men — fired  for  getting  too  powerful — to  a  most 
unusual  degree  controlled  the  companies  which  they  after¬ 
ward  founded  or  headed! 

Most  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  firings  were  both  sudden  and 
cruel  and  they  produced  bad  feeling — although  nearly  all 
of  that  feeling  has  since  died  away.  But  the  extraor¬ 
dinary  fact  is  that  I  have  never  met  a  man  who  worked 
with  Mr.  Patterson  who,  no  matter  what  were  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  his  leaving  did  not  copy  most  of  Mr. 
Patterson’s  methods  of  doing  business,  and  they  have 
worked  as  well  with  these  men  as  they  worked  for  Mr. 
Patterson. 

The  idea  behind  having  no  indispensable  individuals 
was  not  wholly  personal.  He  fired  many  men  for  per¬ 
sonal  reasons  and  reasons  sometimes  of  an  extraordinary 
character.  I  say  “fire”  because  the  word  “discharge” 
does  not  call  up  a  picture  of  the  operation.  It  is  almost 
as  beside  the  point  as  to  say  that  the  men  resigned — 
which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  many  of  them  technically  did. 
The  firing  of  a  man  because  he  was  too  valuable  was  part 
of  Mr.  Patterson’s  plan,  gradually  worked  out  through  the 
years,  of  trying  to  make  an  institution  rather  than  a  col¬ 
lection  of  individuals.  He  wanted  the  framework  of  the 
institution  to  be  ideas  and  to  have  men  to  carry  out  the 
ideas.  This  is  very  different  from  having  an  institution 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CASH  REGISTER  INDUSTRY 
The  manufacture  of  cash  registers  began  in  1879  in  the  marked  space  in  this  building 


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OUT  OF  BUSINESS  AND  IN  AGAIN  75 


built  of  men.  What  actually  came  about,  however,  was 
not  an  institution  merely  of  ideas,  for  that  is  impossible. 
Ideas  do  not  function  regardless  of  the  personality  of  their 
administration.  What  came  about  was  an  institution 
so  full  of  good  ideas  that  men  developed  so  rapidly  that 
there  was  always  a  man  ready  to  take  the  place  of  who¬ 
ever  went  out. 

Mr.  Patterson  did  not  know  a  capable  man  when  he 
saw  him.  He  was  quickly  attracted  to  men  and  some¬ 
times  thought  them  extraordinarily  capable  on  very  slight 
evidence,  but  he  was  equally  quick  to  find  out  his  errors. 
He  was  always  shuffling  the  human  cards.  If  the  best 
man  were  shuffled  to  the  top,  he  stayed  there.  There  is 
a  good  deal  of  talk  about  some  men  being  sure  judges  of 
human  nature  and  unerring  in  their  selection  of  assist¬ 
ants.  I  have  met  men  who  thought  they  had  this 
faculty,  but  I  have  yet  to  find  one  who  really  had  it. 
Men  rise  by  a  process  of  elimination.  Mr.  Patterson 
had  a  way  of  hastening  the  process,  for,  although  he 
seemed  to  have  great  confidence  in  his  ability  to  pick 
men,  he  actually  had  very  little  and  was  continually 
testing  his  judgment.  He  used  to  say  that  you  did  not 
have  to  take  the  whole  shell  off  an  egg  to  find  that  it 
was  rotten,  and  so  one  piece  of  complete  stupidity  was 
enough  to  make  him  fire  any  man.  He  would  fire  a  man 
for  not  obeying  orders  and  he  would  fire  him  for  obeying 
them  too  literally. 

The  whole  policy  was  to  keep  the  men  on  their  toes  and 
to  check  the  least  signs  of  bumptiousness.  One  of  the 
higher  officers  of  the  company,  now  dead,  was  to  Mr. 
Patterson’s  mind  becoming  both  lazy  and  important. 
In  a  meeting  this  officer  had  made  an  answer  which  did 
not  show  any  great  comprehension  of  what  was  going  on, 


76 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


and  what  was  worse,  not  much  desire  to  find  out  Mr. 
Patterson  was  nettled. 

“Well,  indeed/’  he  began.  The  two  words  “well, 
indeed”  were  danger  signals — they  were  precursors  of  a 
storm.  Those  who  knew  Mr.  Patterson  well  always 
looked  around  for  cover  when  he  spoke  those  words. 
“Do  you  know,”  he  continued,  “there  are  only  two 
things  the  matter  with  you.” 

“If  that’s  all,”  answered  the  officer  cheerily,  “I  ought 
to  be  able  to  correct  them.” 

“Well,  I  don’t  know.  It  will  be  pretty  hard.” 

“What’s  the  matter  with  me?” 

“There  are  just  two  things.  Everything  you  do  is 
wrong.  Everything  you  say  is  wrong.” 

It  was  a  hard  school  that  Mr.  Patterson  ran  but  it  was 
no  harder  than  the  school  he  had  been  brought  up  in 
himself,  and  he  never  asked  of  any  man  nearly  as  much  as 
he  asked  of  himself.  But  the  big  thing  is  that  he  never 
failed  to  give  ability  a  chance.  After  he  had  given  the 
chance  he  might  discover  that  the  ability  was  not  of  the 
kind  that  he  most  needed,  but,  of  the  many  thousands  of 
men  who  have  been  with  the  N.  C.  R.  for  two  years  or 
more  and  who  are  now  out  in  the  business  world,  a 
negligible  percentage  are  failures.  The  record  of  success 
among  N.  C.  R.  graduates  is  infinitely  higher  than  can  be 
found  among  the  graduates  of  any  collegiate  institution. 
Fully  95  per  cent,  of  the  men  who  have  gone  through  have 
made  good.  A  high  collegiate  average  is  30  per  cent. 

The  reasons  behind  Mr.  Patterson’s  rule  are  to  be  found 
in  his  early  history.  Even  his  most  extraordinary  actions 
go  back  to  a  lesson  hammered  out  in  the  forge  of  expe¬ 
rience. 

Just  as  he  was  leaving  the  coal  business  he  became  in- 


OUT  OF  BUSINESS  AND  IN  AGAIN  77 


teres  ted  in  the  study  of  the  business  cycle.  In  the  early 
eighties  probably  not  one  man  in  a  thousand  had  ever 
heard  of  the  business  cycle  and  if  he  had  he  probably 
thought  it  had  something  to  do  with  bicycles.  Mr. 
Patterson,  along  about  the  year  1880,  came  across  a  little 
book  that  had  been  written  by  one  Samuel  Benner  who 
called  himself  “an  Ohio  farmer.”  Benner  brought  out  his 
book  privately  in  the  year  1875,  as  a  result  of  the  Panic 
of  1873,  under  the  title  “  Benner’s  Prophecies  of  Future 
Ups  and  Downs  in  Prices”  with  the  subtitles:  “What 
years  to  make  money  on  pig  iron,  hogs,  corn,  and  pro¬ 
visions.”  The  book  was  later  taken  over  by  the  Robert 
Clarke  Company  of  Cincinnati  and  went  through  fifteen 
editions,  the  last  being  in  1905.  Mr.  Benner  sensed  that 
there  was  something  in  the  nature  of  a  price  cycle  and  on 
that  basis  established  himself  as  a  prophet — a  kind  of 
quasi-scientific  fortune  teller. 

He  based  his  prophecies  on  the  price  of  pig-iron  and  he 
called  his  rule  the  “Cast-Iron  Rule.”  He  found  that  the 
cycles  of  panics  were  in  the  same  scale  with  the  cycles  of 
pig-iron  prices.  Beginning  with  the  Panic  of  1819,  he 
found  it  was  eighteen  years  to  that  of  1837,  twenty  years 
to  that  of  1857,  and  sixteen  years  to  that  of  1873.  “It 
takes  panics  fifty-four  years  in  their  order  to  make  a 
revolution  or  to  return  in  the  same  order;  the  present  cycle 
consisting  of  eighteen  years  will  end  in  1891  when  the 
next  panic  will  burst  upon  us  with  all  its  trail  of  woes.” 

When  Mr.  Patterson  came  across  this  book  he  imme¬ 
diately  added  it  to  his  Bible  as  a  constant  companion  and 
it  is  impossible  to  estimate  how  much  it  really  did  for  his 
business.  He  did  not  of  course  implicitly  follow  the 
author  or  make  his  plans  according  to  rigid  charts.  What 
he  got  out  of  the  book  was,  first,  that  something  in  the 


78 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


nature  of  a  business  cycle  existed,  and  second,  that  one 
should  be  ever  wary  of  the  depression  which  follows  pros¬ 
perity.  He  carried  forward  the  author’s  chart  as  a  general 
guide  and  then  he  watched  the  pig-iron  market.  He 
read  the  pig-iron  quotations  every  day  of  his  life  and  he 
had  them  tabulated.  If  pig-iron  began  to  go  down,  he 
made  preparations  for  bad  business.  If  it  began  to  go 
up,  he  got  ready  for  good  business.  Whenever  he  found 
that  the  junk  men  were  eagerly  buying  scrap  iron,  he 
made  ready  for  an  advance  in  business. 

The  book  was  not  his  guide,  as  I  have  said,  but  it 
awakened  him  to  the  changes  in  business,  and  therefore 
not  once  in  his  business  life  was  he  ever  caught  unprepared 
in  an  emergency.  Whenever  business  was  booming  and 
the  sales  people  were  congratulating  themselves  on  how 
good  they  were,  he  had  a  habit  of  drawing  a  wiggly  line 
which  by  convention  was  known  to  be  a  snake  and  then 
lettering  under  it:  4 ‘When  the  sun  shines,  look  out  for  the 
adder.” 

He  was  ready  for  every  panic  before  it  started  and  he 
met  each  one  in  exactly  the  same  fashion.  He  would 
always  hold  a  meeting  long  before  any  one  else  thought 
that  a  panic  was  conceivable.  He  would  explain  that 
there  was  going  to  be  a  panic.  He  would  make  a  big 
“V”  on  the  blackboard  or  pad  and  say  something  like 
this: 

“Here  we  have  a  valley  of  depression.  Business  is 
going  to  drop  right  down  to  the  bottom  and  then  come 
up  the  other  side.  We  can  drop  with  business  or  we  can 
build  a  bridge  and  go  across.  Let’s  build  a  bridge.” 

His  way  of  building  a  bridge  was  to  intensify  every  sales 
effort.  He  did  not  draw  in  for  a  panic.  He  put  on  extra 
effort,  and  each  panic  marked  a  substantial  advance  by 


OUT  OF  BUSINESS  AND  IN  AGAIN  79 

\  1 

the  N.  C.  R.  The  company  really  grew  up  in  the 

Panic  of  1893. 

Mr.  Patterson’s  study  of  the  business  cycle  may  not 
have  been  scientific,  although  probably  it  was  about  as 
scientific  as  any  other  study  excepting  that  he  omitted  the 
jargon,  but  he  most  certainly  used  his  knowledge  in  the 
most  intense  and  constructive  fashion.  For  while  many 
get  out  of  this  sort  of  study  only  a  reason  for  hiding  in 
the  cellar  and  being  chary  of  coming  out  of  it,  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson  took  an  approaching  panic  as  an  instruction  to 
revise  his  business  methods  and  to  press  business  the  more 
furiously.  He  not  only  had,  as  all  his  associates  said, 
“a  nose  for  panics”  but  he  also  had  an  antidote  for 
them. 

John  H.  Patterson,  aged  forty,  had  the  beginnings  of 
business  wisdom  in  him,  but  he  did  not  know  it  and  no  one 
else  did,  for  he  just  had  a  little  money  and  nothing  to  do. 
He  and  his  brother  set  out  to  find  something  to  do. 

They  thought  that  perhaps  farming  offered  more  than 
manufacturing,  although  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  John 
ever  really  intended  to  go  into  farming.  He  wanted  to 
be  a  manufacturer,  but  he  was  willing  to  look  into  farm¬ 
ing.  He  was  as  unsettled  as  a  schoolboy.  The  brothers 
left  Dayton  to  buy  a  ranch  and  go  into  cattle  raising  or 
fruit  growing.  During  the  following  six  months,  they  vis¬ 
ited  every  state  in  the  West,  from  Missouri  to  California. 
Finally,  they  found  three  suitable  ranches  and  took  a  six- 
month  option  on  each  of  them. 

Late  in  October  they  stopped  at  Colorado  Springs  to 
decide  which  of  the  three  ranches  they  would  buy.  One 
evening  they  fell  into  conversation  with  a  merchant  from 
the  East,  who  informed  them  that  he  was  on  a  long  vaca¬ 
tion.  John  Patterson,  always  anxious  to  learn,  wanted 


80 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


to  know  how  any  merchant  could  afford  to  take  the  chance 
of  leaving  his  business  for  that  length  of  time.  The 
merchant  told  Mr.  Patterson  that  he  had  a  good  manager 
and  also  he  owned  machines,  made  in  Dayton,  which 
counted  the  cash  receipts.  Each  day  there  was  mailed  to 
him  a  statement  with  the  punched  paper  roll  from  the 
cash  register.  This,  he  said,  gave  him  a  perfect  check 
on  his  business,  and  he  had  no  reason  to  worry.  The 
following  morning  the  merchant  showed  a  report  to 
Mr.  Patterson. 

That  night  John  Patterson  said  to  his  brother. 

“Frank,  this  man’s  experience  with  cash  registers  is 
just  the  same  as  ours.  What  was  good  for  the  little  store 
at  Coal  ton  is  good  for  every  store  in  the  world.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  convince  merchants  of  the  good  that  the 
machines  will  do  and  they  will  be  used  in  every  store  on 
earth.  The  cash-register  business  can  be  made  one  of  the 
largest  industries  in  America.” 

The  next  day  they  left  for  Dayton  with  the  intention  of 
buying  a  controlling  interest  in  the  National  Manufactur¬ 
ing  Company. 

The  very  day  they  arrived  home  the  Pattersons  ar¬ 
ranged  an  appointment  for  the  evening  with  George 
Phillips,  the  president  of  the  National  Manufacturing 
Company  and  who  owned  the  controlling  interest.  John 
Patterson  agreed  to  buy  his  stock  for  sixty-five  hundred 
dollars.  He  and  his  brother  Frank  then  went  to  their 
club.  They  told  what  they  had  done.  The  members 
took  it  as  a  great  joke.  They  agreed  that  Phillips  must 
have  looked  on  them  as  angels  sent  from  above,  for  no 
one  else  would  buy  the  worthless  stock  of  a  failing  com¬ 
pany.  One  man  said: 

“You  must  have  lost  all  your  business  judgment — • 


OUT  OF  BUSINESS  AND  IN  AGAIN  81 


your  six  months  in  the  West  must  have  taken  all  the  sense 
you  ever  had.” 

Talk  of  that  sort  always  worried  John  Patterson. 
He  was  not  easily  influenced,  but  he  was  easily  worried. 
He  decided  that  he  had  done  the  wrong  thing.  He  de¬ 
cided  that  he  would  go  back  in  the  morning  and  cancel 
the  agreement.  This  is  his  own  story  of  what  happened: 

“I  went  back  to  Mr.  Phillips  the  next  day  and  said: 

“‘I  will  give  you  a  hundred  dollars,  and  we  will  con¬ 
sider  our  contract  of  last  night  annulled.  I  would  take 
the  cash-register  business  off  your  hands,  but  since  you 
say  it  is  such  a  good  thing  for  you  and  you  like  it  so  well, 
and  you  have  such  a  great  future  in  it,  I  thought  I  would 
not  deprive  you  of  it.’ 

“My  offer  was  refused.  Then  I  offered  him  five 
hundred  dollars,  and  said: 

“  ‘This  is  just  as  good  to  you  as  it  was  last  night.  ’ 

“Right  then  I  vowed  that  I  would  never  enter  into 
any  more  contracts  after  dark.  He  said  he  would  not  take 
it,  and  I  offered  him  two  thousand  dollars,  but  without 
result. 

“He  said  to  me:  ‘You  have  bought  this  stock.  If  you 
had  paid  for  it  and  I  had  turned  it  over  to  you,  then  if  you 
were  to  hand  it  back  to  me  and  say,  “George,  I  will  make 
you  a  present  of  this  stock,”  I  would  not  take  it/ 

“Then  I  told  him: 

“‘I  am  going  into  this  business  and  I  am  going  into  it 
right.  I  am  going  to  make  this  thing  go,  and  you  will  be 
sorry  later  on.’” 

On  Saturday,  November  22,  1884,  John  Patterson  took 
over  the  management  of  the  company.  The  whole 
factory  and  office  were  in  a  room  forty  feet  by  eighty,  and 
thirteen  people  in  all  were  on  the  payroll.  Henry  Theo- 


82 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

bald,  who  years  afterward  became  general  manager  and 
who  is  now  president  of  the  Toledo  Scale  Company,  thus 
describes  what  the  place  looked  like.  He  told  me: 

“Immediately  after  the  present  management  took 
hold  of  this  business,  they  advertised  for  a  shorthand 
writer  and  typewriter  operator.  Having  taken  a  course 
in  shorthand  writing,  I  thought  I  would  make  application. 
So  I  sat  down  to  a  typewriter  and  wrote  my  application 
for  the  position.  I  have  since  seen  the  letter  I  wrote  and 
have  often  wondered  how  in  the  world  I  ever  got  the  job. 
At  any  rate,  I  got  it.  I  was  invited  to  call  at  the  office  of 
the  then  ‘National  Manufacturing  Company.’ 

“I  was  shown  to  a  little  room  about  eight  by  ten  parti¬ 
tioned  off  the  main  floor.  The  bookkeeper’s  desk  oc¬ 
cupied  about  one  third  of  the  room  and  the  president’s 
desk  another  third,  and  a  few  chairs  the  remaining  third. 
I  wondered  where  they  were  going  to  put  me,  but  the 
bookkeeper,  who  was  a  good-hearted,  genial  old  fellow, 
moved  a  few  chairs  and  said : 

“‘Well,  we  will  put  the  spittoon  over  there,  I  will  stand 
here,  and  you  can  sit  there,  so  the  spittoon  will  be  in 
range  of  both  of  us.’ 

“The  whole  establishment  was  then  all  in  one  room. 
On  a  shelf  in  one  corner  of  the  room  were  six  or  eight 
wooden  cabinets.  At  that  time  we  did  not  order  many 
cabinets  at  a  time,  for  we  did  not  know  how  soon  what 
little  bottom  the  business  had  might  fall  out  of  it.” 

John  Patterson  was  at  last  a  manufacturer — with 
absolutely  no  knowledge  of  manufacturing.  He  was  the 
proprietor  of  a  business  that  had  been  definitely  labelled 
a  failure.  The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  change  the  name 
of  the  company  to  “The  National  Cash  Register  Com¬ 
pany.” 


e  fourth  tiwr 
"  the  advert i 


leather  year’s  work  to  lay  out  4a^  ; 
factions  to  aaks,  sales  to  posh  and  ■ 
yrk  to  do  ovary  day-  A  a low- going 
t  HEART  >MD  REFUSES  TO  TRY  beeaua® 
to  do.  and  «  nervous  on»  loses  HI3 
!>  TOO  WDCH- -which  brings  ta.  mind' 
»  youth  who  *se  eet  to  eat«h  th* 


to  aloes  up. pi 
gat  atartarfiyi 
a  Wb0l«  WM^*: 
storekeeper^ 
th«r*  la  ad"* 

HEAD  THYTH^f 
the  fabl*  if 

floafe  of  f|yr 

IT  9 AS  Mi-  B&Ba:-?'  and  no  headway  ®*de  lota  d  . 
work  and  nfej  wo  caught *"U»TIL  HE  L EARNED  HO*  BW 
taking  OHS’  A'  A  .  T'fUE  sod  ALWAYS  taking  the  one! 
MEAREST  TO  HI) ,  he  found  the  task  «hl«h  ««*  impoo- : 
aibl®  to  olh<^is®  aeeosipllah,  could  ba  finished: 
quit*  easily.  Row  aateh  tha  geos*  that  will  Lay 

Cash  Rag- 


The  seventh  time  1 
I  onr  Advertisemettl  h 
I  phatkaHy  proawawe* 

:  j*wt  wlmt  lie  needs. 


*|*ib  time  he  #**  o«r 
^Wtiwanent  he.  as*®  &« 
&  neighbor  tf  ha  knotra 
anything  kbwtttt  3* 


Protection  against  mis- 
rou  buy  your  Beef,  Po- 


Attend  to  it  no*.  Buy 


ates  root-ires  W  adtsmsetaept  ho  is  iaotiued  m  r«m 
eadnraamcB-t  litafOlW  fte  »H»i*  heiow  which  we  racehPftd 


Advartkfcflwut  he  .telephones,  his 


at  our  expense,  with  an 
3ffewYo?V>.Jnj>c2(  \m' 


iuw  much  he  y  ill  hast 
tohuy*  one. 


left,  jm>vidh»g 


Vflmv  m  to  J^  ntark  tlmt 
you  will  fiml  tin*  !»rl<N‘  HU»* 
Hentty  hltfhV  WHfFHHt  H  fc 
ftrst  ehtHH  Macfilue. 


SOME  OF  THE  EIGHTEEN  KINDS  OF  ADVERTISING 
Written  by  John  H.  Patterson  in  the  early  days  of  the  N.  C.  R.  Co.,  and  mailed 
in  successive  order  to  5,000  merchants.  See  page  90 


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OUT  OF  BUSINESS  AND  IN  AGAIN  83 


John  Patterson,  when  he  bought  the  majority  stock 
interest  of  the  National  Manufacturing  Company,  un¬ 
doubtedly  thought  that  he  was  buying  into  a  real  busi¬ 
ness.  It  turned  out  that  all  he  really  bought  was  the 
right  to  manufacture  cash  registers  under  the  Ritty  and 
Birch  patents.  He  had  made  his  price  without  looking 
at  the  factory  and  with  only  a  cursory  examination  of  the 
accounts.  It  would  not  have  done  him  much  good  to 
examine  the  factory,  for  he  knew  nothing  of  machinery. 
And  he  might  just  as  well  not  have  looked  at  the  ac¬ 
counts,  for  the  largest  item  turned  out  to  be  extraor¬ 
dinarily  shrinking. 

The  big  item  was  '‘Accounts  Receivable.”  When  a 
register  was  shipped  out  to  an  agent  on  consignment,  it 
went  into  this  account  at  the  list  price  which  was,  now 
that  the  detail  adder  had  been  put  on,  two  hundred  dol¬ 
lars.  But  when  an  agent  sold  one  of  these  registers,  he 
was  entitled  to  a  discount  of  fifty  per  cent.  So,  while  an 
unsold  register  stood  on  the  books  at  two  hundred  dol¬ 
lars,  that  same  register  when  sold  turned  into  only  one 
hundred  dollars  in  cash!  The  seller  had  not  bothered  to 
speak  of  this  little  oddity  in  the  accounting — if  indeed  he 
knew  it.  Mr.  Phillips,  who  sold  the  stock  to  John  Pat¬ 
terson,  was  an  entirely  honest  man  and  he  had  not  sought 
out  Patterson.  Patterson  had  done  all  the  seeking. 
Phillips  had  not  sold;  he  had  merely  not  dissuaded  Pat¬ 
terson  from  buying. 

But  Mr.  Patterson  did  not  complain  of  the  state  of  the 
assets  nor  of  anything  in  connection  with  the  company. 
Everything  was  so  bad  that  he  did  not  bother  to  decide 
what  was  worst.  He  knew  that  he  was  in  to  make  the 
best  of  a  bad  bargain. 

The  factory  was  better  than  the  accounting.  It  con- 


84 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


tained  a  lathe,  an  old  milling  machine,  a  couple  of  screw 
machines,  a  drill  press,  and  a  printing  press  to  print  the 
rolls  used  by  the  paper-punching  register.  This  was  all  the 
machinery  really  needed,  for  the  register  as  then  made  was 
not  at  all  complicated  and  working  at  top  speed  the  force 
could  turn  out  thirty  registers  a  month — but  such  pres¬ 
sure  was  unnecessary,  for  the  company  had  not  been  able 
to  sell  thirty  registers  a  month. 

John  Patterson,  surveying  the  prospects,  decided  that  he 
needed  sales  more  than  a  factory.  He  gave  up  the  first 
day  to  a  little  elementary  cleaning.  He  made  all  the  men 
clean  their  tools.  Some  of  them  had  been  using  boxes  as 
seats;  he  had  the  boxes  thrown  out  and  bought  stools. 
He  had  the  stocks  assorted  and  put  neatly  on  shelves  and 
made  a  rule  that  finished  registers  should  be  arranged 
exactly  even  on  a  bench.  The  men  complained  that  the 
drinking  water  was  not  right;  he  bought  earthen  crocks 
and  gave  orders  that  they  be  filled  every  day  with  lemon¬ 
ade.  This  was  the  extent  of  his  factory  reorganization 
and  it  was  characteristic.  For  the  time  being  he  left  the 
manufacturing  in  charge  of  Frank  Patterson. 

Cleaning  up  the  factory  took  all  the  first  day  and  part  of 
the  second.  Then  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  cash 
register  itself.  For  several  years  he  gave  great  attention 
to  devising  improvements  and  took  out  many  patents 
himself — but  of  this  more  later.  One  of  the  things  he  did 
was  to  buy  for  five  hundred  dollars  a  device  by  which  the 
additions  made  by  the  adding  wheels  at  the  foot  of  the 
various  denominational  columns  would  read  in  dollars 
and  cents.  Previously  the  adding  wheels  had  shown  only 
the  number  of  times  that  the  particular  key  had  been 
pressed.  The  indicators  were  of  unpainted  tin  with 
stencilled  figures.  The  amounts  could  be  seen  only  a  few 


OUT  OF  BUSINESS  AND  IN  AGAIN  85 


feet  away  from  the  register.  Mr.  Patterson  put  C.  W. 
Stewart  at  work  experimenting  on  how  to  get  better  in¬ 
dicators  and  in  a  few  weeks  they  together  evolved  a  white 
indicator  with  heavy  black  figures  that  could  be  read 
twenty  feet  away.  Shortly  he  set  about  getting  a  better 
cash  drawer  and  he  bought  the  rights  to  a  special  drawer, 
the  patent  on  which  had  been  granted  to  one  Michael 
Campbell.  This  drawer  opened  only  when  a  register  key 
was  pressed.  Instantly  it  made  the  register  twice  as 
valuable  as  it  had  been  before  and  in  addition  it  was  a  good 
selling  feature  in  that  the  cash  drawer  was  already  known 
to  merchants. 

This  marks  the  beginning  of  the  policy  of  never  con¬ 
sidering  the  product  as  finished  and  which  was  to  resolve 
into  a  definite  policy  a  few  years  later  when  he  formally 
established  the  inventions  department,  which  became  so 
famous.  Mr.  Patterson  conceived  of  business  as  start¬ 
ing  with  the  buyer;  he  went  into  the  making  of  cash  reg¬ 
isters  only  because  he  thought  every  merchant  would 
eventually  have  to  use  one.  Thereafter  he  worked  on  the 
theory  not  of  supplying  what  the  buyer  wanted — for  the 
buyers  then  did  not  want  cash  registers ;  he  worked  on  the 
theory  of  supplying  what  the  buyer  could  use  to  the  best 
possible  advantage  once  he  had  been  taught  the  need. 
As  he  then  said  to  his  people  and  repeated  thousands  of 
times  afterward: 

“Send  in  the  complaints.  They  are  our  schoolbooks 
from  which  we  learn  what  is  needed  and  how  to  remedy 
the  difficulty.  We  propose  so  to  improve  the  quality  of  our 
registers  as  to  make  them  look  as  finished  as  a  watch.” 

He  wanted  everything  exactly  right.  He  went  down 
to  New  York  some  time  later  and  he  came  back  with  this 
on  his  mind: 


86 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“  Why  does  the  great  firm,  Tiffany  &  Co.,  Union  Square, 
get  such  fancy  prices  for  their  goods  and  how  have  they 
become  so  wealthy?  Simply  by  doing  everything  right, 
and  this  includes  in  detail  every  minute  thing.  Swift  & 
Co.,  West  Thirtieth  Street,  N.  Y.,who  repair  and  paint 
Tiffany  &  Co.’s  delivery  wagons,  told  me  that  a  stripe  of 
one  thirty  second  of  an  inch  was  ordered,  but  by  mistake 
it  was  made  one  sixteenth  of  an  inch  wide.  It  was  a  small 
matter,  but  Tiffany  &  Co.  would  not  receive  the  wagons 
and  they  had  to  be  painted  over.  There  is  a  best  way 
for  every  detail  connected  with  a  register.” 

He  started  to  put  his  theories  into  effect. 


CHAPTER  VI 


LEARNING  HOW  TO  SELL 

THE  business  before  Mr.  Patterson  was  to  sell — to 
sell  what  others  had  failed  to  sell.  He  subor¬ 
dinated  all  else  to  selling. 

The  expenses  of  the  factory  were  slight.  The  rent, 
including  power,  was  forty-two  dollars  a  month;  John 
and  Frank  each  put  themselves  down  for  twenty-five 
dollars  a  week  but  there  was  hardly  ever  enough  money 
in  bank  for  them  to  get  their  salaries.  The  supplies  were 
bought  as  needed  from  the  hardware  and  iron  shops  about 
town.  Otto  Nelson  was  both  office  boy  and  purchasing 
agent — he  ran  out  and  got  the  supplies.  The  wood 
cabinets  for  the  machines  and  all  the  castings  were  made 
outside.  The  plant  did  only  the  small  finishing  work  and 
the  assembling. 

The  big  job  ahead  of  Mr.  Patterson  was  to  get  sales. 
He  fussed  with  the  factory  only  while  maturing  his  sales 
plans.  He  changed  the  register  only  to  give  it  a  stronger 
sales  appeal.  In  three  days  he  had  started  after  sales. 

He  first  went  to  work  establishing  agencies.  He  got  in 
touch  with  men  who  had  sold  cash  registers  as  a  side  line, 
and  offered  to  them  exclusive  representation  for  their 
territories.  Remembering  his  experiences  with  Brooks 
coal  and  the  lesson  he  had  learned  at  school  about  the 
interchange  of  information,  he  could  see  no  possible  ex¬ 
cuse  for  other  than  an  exclusive  right  to  sell  in  a  district. 
This  later  developed  into  guaranteed  territory — that  is,  if 

87 


88 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


an  agent  sold  outside  his  own  territory,  the  commission 
on  the  sale  would  go  to  the  man  who  owned  that  territory. 

He  made  commission  arrangements  with  all  agents. 
He  reasoned  from  the  very  beginning  that,  since  it  was 
the  business  of  an  agent  to  sell,  the  agent  ought  to  gain 
his  livelihood  exclusively  out  of  what  he  did  sell.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  N.  C.  R.  could  not  then  have  had 
salaried  agents  because  it  did  not  have  the  money  to 
pay  salaries.  But  the  commission  basis  did  not  grow 
wholly  out  of  necessity.  It  grew  out  of  Patterson’s  ele¬ 
mental  reasoning  that  a  man  must  be  paid  for  results 
and  only  for  results.  If  a  salesman  could  not  make  a 
living  selling,  then  it  was  up  to  him  to  find  some  other  job 
where  he  could  make  a  living.  However,  Mr.  Patterson 
at  once  realized  that  a  salesman  solely  by  his  own  efforts 
and  without  any  help  from  the  company  might  not  be 
able  to  make  a  satisfactory  living — and  if  he  did  not  make 
a  living  then  the  company  could  not  make  a  living  off 
him.  This  is  the  general  view  to-day.  It  was  by  no 
means  the  general  view  in  the  early  eighties.  Then  a 
salesman  on  commission  was  looked  upon  purely  as  a 
gamble.  Selling  on  commission  was  not  entirely  re¬ 
spectable  because  only  canvassers  and  life-insurance 
agents  worked  on  commission,  and  neither  class  was  par¬ 
ticularly  respectable.  Business  houses  were  not  long¬ 
sighted  enough  to  realize  that  it  would  pay  them  to  make 
the  work  of  their  agents  easier.  They  understood  well 
enough  that  if  a  salesman  were  on  salary  he  was  an  ex¬ 
pense  unless  he  earned  his  salary,  but  since  a  man  on 
commission  did  not  cost  anything  he  was  not  bothered 
about. 

Business  in  those  days  worked  from  the  expense  end. 
The  big  thing  was  to  keep  down  the  cost,  and  no  one  ever 


LEARNING  HOW  TO  SELL 


89 


rose  to  suggest  that  keeping  down  the  cost  was  not  the 
whole  of  business  or  that  the  most  efficient  way  of  keep¬ 
ing  down  the  expense  of  doing  business  was  not  to  go 
into  business  at  all.  Salesmen  were  hired  on  straight 
commission  not  at  all  to  force  them  to  consider  their  sales 
and  the  company’s  sales  as  one.  They  were  thus  hired 
only  to  keep  down  expense.  If  the  agent  made  a  sale,  the 
company  gained.  If  the  agent  did  not  sell,  the  company 
did  not  lose.  A  man  never  became  a  salesman  on  com¬ 
mission  if  he  could  find  any  one  to  pay  him  wages  or  salary. 

Mr.  Patterson  very  quickly  applied  his  own  funda¬ 
mental  reasoning  to  this  situation.  Why  did  a  man 
become  a  salesman?  To  make  money,  of  course.  How 
could  he  make  the  most  money?  By  selling  the  largest 
amount  of  goods.  He  could  not  afford  to  establish  a  paid 
sales  force,  but  why  should  he  if  he  could  cause  men  work¬ 
ing  on  commission  to  earn  larger  incomes  than  they  could 
possibly  earn  as  salary?  He  knew  perfectly  well  that  it 
is  not  human  nature  to  work  as  hard  when  an  income  is  as¬ 
sured  as  when  the  income  depends  solely  on  the  effort  ex¬ 
erted.  It  was  not  a  new  idea  to  put  men  on  commission. 
It  was  a  new  idea  to  put  them  on  commission  in  order 
that  they  could  earn  more.  He  started  in  at  once  to  help 
them  to  earn  more. 

He  got  ten  agents  after  a  great  deal  of  trouble  and  then 
only  on  the  exclusive-territory  idea,  which  was  absolutely 
new.  He  showed  the  agents  the  immense  amounts  they 
could  easily  earn  by  canvassing  their  prospects.  Mr. 
Patterson  had  unbounded  faith  that  his  register  could 
be  sold  to  a  practically  unlimited  degree.  He  said  the 
country  needed  a  register  to  each  four  hundred  people. 
He  dazzled  the  agents  with  the  prospects  of  what  they 
could  do.  Most  of  the  men  he  got  were  of  the  type  known 


90 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

as  “born  salesmen” — the  type  that  gets  into  the  ranks  of 
the  unemployed  by  fondling  the  notion  that  a  born  sales¬ 
man  does  not  have  to  work  every  day. 

From  each  of  these  ten  salesmen  Mr.  Patterson  secured 
the  names  of  five  hundred  prospective  customers  in  the 
respective  territories.  This  gave  him  a  list  of  five  thou¬ 
sand  names.  Then  one  morning  Mr.  Patterson  came  in 
with  a  carpenter.  He  had  him  build  a  long  table  and  a 
shelf  with  eighteen  compartments.  Nobody  knew  what 
was  going  on.  Mr.  Patterson’s  next  foray  yielded  half 
a  dozen  young  men  from  a  commercial  college.  Each  of 
them  carried  several  boxes  of  envelopes.  He  ranged  the 
boys  along  the  table,  divided  the  five  thousand  names 
among  them,  and  gave  instructions  that  eighteen  enve¬ 
lopes  were  to  be  addressed  to  each  name  on  the  list.  When 
this  job  was  done,  each  bin  had  in  it  five  thousand  ad¬ 
dressed  envelopes.  Then  the  printer’s  man  came  along 
with  eighteen  different  kinds  of  advertising  matter,  all 
of  which  had  been  written  by  John  Patterson. 

This  advertising  differed  from  any  which  up  to  that 
time  had  been  seen,  in  that  every  piece  held  a  reason 
why  the  purchase  of  a  register  would  make  money  for  the 
purchaser.  It  was  educational  advertising.  He  bor¬ 
rowed  from  the  patent-medicine  people  the  wrinkle  of 
attaching  testimonials  of  satisfied  users.  There  were  not 
many  users  and  by  no  means  all  of  them  were  satisfied, 
but  Mr.  Patterson  made  the  gathering  of  these  testimon¬ 
ials  a  personal  affair.  If  the  user  were  not  satisfied,  Mr. 
Patterson  kept  at  him  until  he  was  satisfied.  From  the 
beginning  Mr.  Patterson  insisted  that  no  advertising 
could  equal  the  word-of-mouth  advertising  of  the  satisfied 
user. 

He  reasoned  out  another  fundamental.  He  never  urged 


LEARNING  HOW  TO  SELL 


91 


customers  to  buy  because  he  wanted  to  sell.  He  insisted 
then,  and  it  is  now  everywhere  considered  a  sound  sales 
policy,  that  a  sale  should  not  be  made  to  any  one  who 
could  not  make  money  out  of  what  he  bought.  His 
messages  all  went  to  show  the  merchant’s  need  of  a 
register  and  not  the  N.  C.  R.’s  need  of  a  sale.  There  is  a 
distinction  here  which  is  not  yet  universally  grasped. 

For  eighteen  successive  days  each  of  the  five  thousand 
merchants  received  from  Mr.  Patterson  a  piece  of  adver¬ 
tising  matter.  As  far  as  I  can  discover,  this  is  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  concentrated  sales  pressure.  I  do  not  know  how 
John  Patterson  got  the  idea  that  eighteen  letters  to  each 
of  five  thousand  men  would  be  more  effective  than 
ninety  thousand  letters  broadcasted  to  ninety  thousand 
addresses.  A  shallow  reasoning  would  decide  on  sending 
out  to  the  ninety  thousand.  But  Mr.  Patterson  knew 
that  advertising  would  not  of  itself  sell  cash  registers. 
Although  he  had  bought  his  first  registers  by  telegraph, 
he  knew  that  the  average  merchant  would  not  part  with 
two  hundred  dollars  unless  it  could  clearly  be  shown  that 
the  two-hundred-dollar  expenditure  was  going  to  bring  in 
an  equal  revenue.  He  designed  his  advertising  to  edu¬ 
cate  the  merchant  into  the  belief  that  buying  a  cash  regis¬ 
ter  was  a  method  of  saving  money  and  he  thought  that  if 
he  took  a  selected  list  and  hammered  at  it  continuously, 
the  prospective  purchaser  (whom  a  year  or  two  later  he 
began  to  refer  to  as  the  “P.  P.”)  would  get  around  to 
thinking  that  there  might  be  something  in  the  argument. 
Then  he  was  ripe  for  the  salesmen.  The  response  to  the 
bombardment  convinced  him  that  he  was  attracting  at¬ 
tention.  One  merchant  returned  the  tenth  letter  of  the 
series  with  a  notation: 

4 ‘Let  up.  We  never  done  you  any  harm.” 


92 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


This  method  of  mail  education  was  kept  up  by  Mr. 
Patterson  for  nearly  twenty  years  and  eventually  re¬ 
sulted  in  a  paper  called  The  Hustler ,  which  at  one  time 
went  out  to  as  many  as  half  a  million  prospects  a  month. 
It  had  two  American  editions  and  Australian,  English, 
German,  French,  and  Norwegian  editions.  But  of  this 
more  later. 

Another  testimonial  to  the  efficiency  of  the  attack  was 
the  defence  organized  by  store  clerks.  In  a  year  or  two 
Mr.  Patterson  found  out  that  envelopes  bearing  the  name 
of  the  National  Cash  Register  Company  were  carefully 
watched  for  by  clerks  and  destroyed  before  they  reached 
the  proprietor.  He  took  the  name  of  the  company  off 
the  envelopes.  This  worked  for  a  while,  but  then  clerks 
began  to  watch  for  envelopes  postmarked  44 Dayton.” 
For  quite  a  number  of  years  the  advertising  matter  was 
each  month  mailed  from  a  different  city  in  envelopes  bear¬ 
ing  only  the  return  address  of  the  agent  in  the  city. 

The  first  big  order  brought  both  joy  and  sorrow.  It 
was  for  sixteen  detail  adders  and  came  from  Chicago. 
Let  Mr.  Patterson  describe  it : 

44  Everybody  around  the  place  was  jubilant.  We  got 
out  advertising  matter  and  flooded  the  country  two  or 
three  times,  showing  photographs  of  the  machines  and 
pictures  of  the  places  in  which  they  were  to  be  used. 
When  a  payment  became  due  in  thirty  days,  I  received 
a  telegram  that  the  registers  would  be  returned! 

44 1  went  to  Chicago  to  find  out  what  was  wrong.  I  was 
told  by  the  proprietors  that  they  had  used  the  sixteen 
machines  in  seven  different  places  for  thirty  days  and 
there  was  not  one  register  that  balanced  with  the  cash  on 
any  one  day.  They  said  they  were  no  good,  they  were 
not  accurate,  and  they  did  not  want  them. 


LEARNING  HOW  TO  SELL 


93 


“‘The  registers  are  right/  I  answered.  cIf  this  has 
happened  something  is  wrong  with  your  men.’ 

“They  were  very  indignant,  and  said  that  the  fault  was 
with  the  machines. 

“ ‘  You  let  them  stay  for  a  month/  I  continued.  ‘Don’t 
make  any  payments  on  the  notes — just  use  the  registers 
for  thirty  more  days.  By  that  time  I  will  prove  that  the 
machines  are  right.  If  I  don’t,  I  will  take  them  back 
and  return  what  you  paid  on  them.’ 

“They  finally  agreed,  and  I  engaged  two  Pinkerton  de¬ 
tectives  to  watch  these  places  for  thirty  days  and  make  a 
report. 

“The  detectives  found  that  the  salespeople  had  gotten 
together  and  devised  all  the  means  they  could  think  of  to 
get  rid  of  the  registers.  Whenever  any  of  the  proprietors 
were  in,  they  had  friends  talk  about  the  registers.  They 
would  say  that  the  firm  must  think  they  had  a  lot  of 
thieves  working  for  them  and  4 1  wouldn’t  work  any  place 
where  the  boss  thought  I  was  a  thief.  ’  The  clerks  would 
make  a  sale  of  fifty  cents  and  register  seventy-five  cents 
— purposely  registering  the  wrong  amount. 

“After  the  proprietors  read  this  report  they  were  satis¬ 
fied  and  accepted  the  registers.  They  said: 

“  ‘To  make  sure  that  there  will  not  be  any  more  trouble, 
we  will  pay  cash  for  them.  ’ 

“They  read  the  report  to  all  of  their  employees,  and 
concluded : 

“‘We  have  bought  these  registers  and  paid  for  them, 
and  they  are  going  to  stay;  the  first  person  we  find  who  is 
not  operating  them  properly  will  look  elsewhere  for  work.  ’  ” 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  detective  system  of 
checking  up  on  the  use  of  registers.  For  some  years  it 
had  to  be  used  largely. 


94 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


The  salesmen  had  not  only  to  overcome  the  inertia 
of  the  proprietors  but  they  had  everywhere  to  fight  the 
bartenders  and  store  clerks  as  in  Chicago.  A  cash  regis¬ 
ter  was  considered  a  challenge  to  honesty.  The  purchase 
of  a  cash  register  was  often  the  signal  for  a  walkout.  An 
agent,  if  he  were  known  as  such,  was  apt  to  be  thrown  out 
of  the  place.  If  he  did  get  to  the  proprietor  and  sold  him 
a  machine,  then  the  clerks  tried  to  double-cross  the  regis¬ 
ter  in  every  possible  fashion  so  as  to  get  it  taken  out. 
In  a  number  of  localities  clerks  and  bartenders  formed 
organizations  to  prevent  the  sale  and  use  of  cash  registers 
and  passed  around  information  as  to  what  to  do  to  make 
the  machines  appear  inaccurate.  They  had  no  end  of 
tricks.  When  a  customer  handed  in  a  quarter  for  a 
fifteen-cent  purchase,  the  clerk,  instead  of  registering 
fifteen  cents,  would  press  the  “Change”  key  and  of  course 
the  cash  at  the  end  of  the  day  would  not  correspond 
with  the  registration.  The  customers  were  not  sufficiently 
familiar  with  the  registers  to  understand  that  “change” 
did  not  mean  that  they  were  to  get  change  back.  When 
Mr.  Patterson  heard  of  this  wrinkle,  he  abolished  the 
“Change”  key  and  put  in  its  place  a  big  “No  sale”  key 
with  a  big  indicator  which  could  not  be  misunderstood. 

The  first  agents  sold  by  description.  Mr.  Patterson 
said  that  no  man  could  be  expected  to  obligate  himself  to 
pay  two  hundred  dollars  for  something  he  had  not  seen. 
No  effort  was  made  at  that  time  to  get  many  prospects 
to  come  to  an  office  or  a  hotel  for  a  demonstration.  Some 
agents  carried  full-sized  registers  around  with  them,  but 
once  the  organized  opposition  to  the  introduction  of 
registers  was  under  way  the  agents  found  it  almost  im¬ 
possible  to  get  in  anywhere  with  their  big  machines. 
Mr.  Patterson  met  this  at  once  by  making  a  small  work- 


LEARNING  HOW  TO  SELL 


95 


in g  model  of  the  register,  known  as  the  “  three  key 
sample.”  This  he  had  enclosed  in  a  leather  case  which 
had  nothing  about  it  to  indicate  the  National  Cash  Regis¬ 
ter  Company.  This  worked  for  a  time,  but  then  the 
information  service  of  the  opposition  associations  passed 
around  accurate  descriptions  of  the  cases.  Incidentally, 
the  N.  C.  R.  agents  became  quite  unpopular  with  travel¬ 
ling  men  generally  because  every  kind  of  sample  case 
began  to  be  looked  on  with  suspicion.  It  was  quite  usual 
for  a  salesman  entering  a  saloon  with  a  sample  case 
at  once  to  establish  that  he  did  not  represent  the  National 
Cash  Register  Company. 

But  the  sales  pressure  told.  In  March,  1885,  the  com¬ 
pany  shipped  seventy-seven  registers — forty  to  purchasers 
and  thirty-seven  to  agents.  Mr.  Patterson  established  a 
sales  record  which  held  prospect  of  a  successful  business. 

Although  the  old  registers  seem  crude  as  compared  with 
the  improved  models  of  to-day,  they  were  not  crudely 
made.  The  mechanics  employed  by  the  company  knew 
their  business,  as  did  most  mechanics  in  those  days,  and 
one  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  earliest  innovations  was  an  in¬ 
spection  department — or,  to  be  more  accurate,  a  man  to 
do  inspecting.  Mr.  Patterson  himself  was  unofficial  in- 
spector-in-chief ;  he  tried  every  register  before  it  left  the 
place;  he  had  his  eye  on  everything. 

He  had  a  habit  of  showing  people  through  the  factory. 
He  thought  it  was  good  advertising  to  let  the  public  see 
how  registers  were  made,  although  he  knew  that  it  was 
not  much  of  a  factory  that  he  had  to  show.  This  was  in 
itself  a  new  departure  in  manufacturing,  for  in  those  days 
the  most  commonplace  operations  were  concealed  as  busi¬ 
ness  secrets.  If  a  man  learned  how  to  perform  any 
operation  especially  well,  he  hoarded  his  knowledge  as  a 


96 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


miser  hoards  gold.  Mr.  Patterson  took  exactly  the  op¬ 
posite  tack.  He  thought  he  could  gain  more  from  the 
comments  of  outsiders  than  they  could  gain  from  him. 
Anything  they  got  they  were  welcome  to.  So  he  per¬ 
sonally  took  in  charge  any  one  who  cared  to  look  through 
the  factory.  This  has  developed  into  the  elaborate  guide- 
and-lecture  system  by  which  visitors  are  now  taken 
through  the  N.  C.  R.  plant.  One  day,  after  he  had  ex¬ 
plained  the  mechanism  and  the  manufacture  of  the  regis¬ 
ter  to  a  group  of  visitors,  he  took  them  to  a  line  of  half-a- 
dozen  finished  registers  which  were  supposed  to  have  been 
inspected  and  ready  for  shipment.  I  think  it  was  the 
largest  group  which  up  to  that  time  had  been  assembled. 

“Every  one  of  these  registers,”  explained  Mr.  Patter¬ 
son,  “  is  perfect.  Try  the  keys.  Nothing  goes  out  of  here 
until  it  is  right.” 

It  just  so  happened  that  one  of  the  registers  had  not 
been  finally  passed.  It  was  not  working  right  and  was 
due  for  an  overhauling.  As  luck  would  have  it,  this  was 
the  first  register  Mr.  Patterson  tried.  He  pushed  down 
a  key  and  it  did  not  come  up  again. 

“There  seems  to  be  something  wrong  with  this,”  re¬ 
marked  Mr.  Patterson  casually.  “I  will  have  to  fix  it.” 

He  carefully  lifted  the  register  from  the  table  to  the 
floor,  picked  up  a  mallet,  and  demolished  it.  He  liked 
to  emphasize  his  rules  in  this  fashion. 

Some  of  those  old  registers  are  still  in  service.  More 
of  them  would  be  in  service  were  it  not  a  policy  of  the 
company  to  keep  users  fairly  up  to  date  on  the  models. 
One  register  that  had  been  shipped  to  St.  Louis  in  March, 
1885,  came  back  in  exchange  to  the  factory  after  thirty- 
six  years  of  continuous  service.  It  was  practically  as 
good  as  the  day  it  was  shipped,  excepting  that  the  five-, 


LEARNING  HOW  TO  SELL 


97 


ten-,  and  fifty-cent  keys  and  the  dollar  key  were  worn  al¬ 
most  smooth.  The  ten-dollar  key  was  also  worn,  but 
not  because  of  the  multitude  of  ten-dollar  purchases. 
This  1885  model  had  an  automatic  cash  drawer  but  no 
provision  to  open  the  drawer  to  make  change,  so  it  be¬ 
came  a  habit  to  use  the  highest  amount  key  to  open  the 
drawer.  To  overcome  this  Mr.  Patterson  added  the 
“Change”  key  that  I  have  mentioned  and  which  was 
superseded  by  “No  Sale.” 

All  of  this  pushing  forward  was  being  done  without 
money.  John  Patterson  went  ahead  absolutely  regardless 
of  expense.  He  quickly  used  up  all  his  own  money. 
The  advertising  was  expensive.  He  could  easily  have 
cut  down  on  his  advertising  but  that  he  could  not  bring 
himself  to  do,  because  he  regarded  advertising  as  an  ab¬ 
solutely  essential  part  of  the  business.  He  thought  it  no 
more  sensible  to  deprive  the  sales  of  the  full  force  of  ad¬ 
vertising  and  expect  the  business  to  go  along  than  to  de¬ 
prive  the  machinery  in  the  shop  of  one  half  its  motive 
power  and  still  expect  it  to  work.  He  was  engaged  in 
an  educational  campaign  and  to  stop  it  for  even  a  few 
months  meant  the  loss  of  all  that  had  gone  before. 

The  cash  registers  then  as  now  were  mostly  sold  on 
the  installment  plan,  the  purchaser  giving  a  series  of 
notes  extending  over  a  period.  This  resulted  in  the 
profits  of  the  company  being  mostly  deferred.  Propor¬ 
tionately,  it  did  not  cost  very  much  to  make  the  registers, 
but  it  did  cost  a  deal  to  get  out  the  advertising  matter 
and  to  pay  the  commissions  of  the  agents.  The  really 
pressing  expense  was  advertising,  for  the  expenses  of  the 
factory  could  be  cared  for  largely  out  of  the  first  pay¬ 
ments  on  machines  sold  and  the  commission  of  the  agents 
came  out  of  the  money  that  they  collected.  But  the  ad- 


98 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


vertising  had  to  be  paid  for  out  of  new  money — out  of 
profit.  And  the  profits  were  locked  up  in  the  deferred 
payments.  It  is  hard  to  conceive  of  a  more  difficult 
financing  problem. 

The  statements  through  these  early  years  are  lopsided 
— toppling  over.  For  instance,  on  January  1,  1885,  a 
month  and  a  half  after  John  Patterson  had  assumed  ac¬ 
tive  management,  the  concern  was  insolvent.  The  state¬ 
ment  shows  bills  receivable,  $367.50;  cash,  $129.78;  book 
accounts,  $4,734.77,  which,  adding  the  inventory,  gave  a 
total  of  $11,448.82.  Against  this  he  had  bills  payable  of 
$11,701.48.  The  machinery  was  worth  precious  little  at 
forced  sale,  and  the  few  cash  registers  made  up  and  on 
hand  were  worth  almost  nothing  in  any  other  hands. 
The  company  was  really  more  insolvent  than  the  state¬ 
ment.  In  May  of  the  same  year  the  total  assets  had 
jumped  to  $26,210.57  and  there  was  an  apparent  sol¬ 
vency,  the  bills  payable  amounting  to  $18,648.16  and  the 
accounts  payable  to  $2,045.95.  But  this  could  hardly  be 
considered  a  well-balanced  statement,  for  the  cash  con¬ 
sisted  of  ninety-one  cents  of  which  eighty-eight  cents  was 
in  the  bank  and  three  cents  in  the  office  safe!  The  com¬ 
pany  was  owed  $7,256.67  on  open  accounts  and  $1,439.72 
on  notes  given  by  the  purchasers  of  registers.  The  com¬ 
pany’s  6 ‘Bills  Payable”  item  was  made  up  of  promissory 
notes  which  Mr.  Patterson  succeeded  in  discounting  at 
Winters’  National  Bank  in  Dayton. 

He  did  not  exactly  have  a  line  of  credit  at  the  bank,  for 
a  line  of  credit  implies  a  certain  facility  in  borrowing,  and 
this  was  very  far  from  the  case.  The  first  time  Mr. 
Patterson  needed  money  he  went  over  to  the  bank  and 
had  a  talk  with  A.  A.  Winters  whom  he  had  known  for 
many  years.  He  succeeded  in  getting  a  small  loan. 


LEARNING  HOW  TO  SELL 


99 


The  next  time  he  needed  money  he  went  down  and  did 
the  same  thing.  He  gave  the  purchasers’  notes  as  col¬ 
lateral  when  he  had  to,  but  every  loan  was  on  a  personal 
basis  and  a  result  of  selling  and  reselling  the  cash-register 
idea  to  Mr.  Winters. 

John  Patterson  had  no  idea  whatsoever  of  banking. 
He  merely  knew  that  the  bank  had  money  which  he  could 
use  in  his  business  and  that  it  was  up  to  him  to  get  it, 
and  eventually  to  pay  it  back.  The  paying  it  back  did  not 
bother  him  so  much  as  the  getting,  because  he  had  the 
supreme  confidence  that  he  must  succeed  and  that  he 
must  have  money  with  which  to  succeed.  The  bank  loans 
got  up  to  thirty  thousand  dollars.  Then  Mr.  Winters 
absolutely  refused  to  advance  any  more  money  be¬ 
cause  very  little  of  what  had  been  loaned  had  been  repaid. 
Mr.  Patterson  needed  five  thousand  dollars  more  and  he 
needed  it  at  once  and  so  he  quickly  shifted  the  basis  of 
his  argument.  He  said: 

“Mr.  Winters,  I  do  not  want  to  see  the  bank  lose  its 
money,  but  unless  the  company  has  another  loan  it  will 
go  under  and  the  bank  will  lose.” 

He  immediately  became  most  solicitous  about  the  bank 
— he  put  his  own  needs  in  the  background  and  he  stated 
the  case  so  quickly  and  so  clearly  that  Mr.  Winters  forgot 
that  it  was  the  Cash  Register  Company  asking  for  money. 
He  thought  only  of  the  bank  protecting  itself— which 
was  exactly  the  way  Mr.  Patterson  wanted  him  to  think. 
Mr.  Patterson  left  with  the  five  thousand. 

But  in  another  week  the  company  was  just  as  hard  up 

as  before.  And  this  time  Mr.  Winters  said  he  was  not 

\ 

going  to  send  good  money  after  bad. 

The  company  was  organizing  new  agencies  and  equip¬ 
ping  them  with  registers.  The  business  was  increasing. 


100 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Mr.  Patterson  bought  more  machinery,  and  spent  all  the 
cash  he  could  get  hold  of  for  advertising.  He  could  get 
advertising  matter  from  the  printer  only  for  cash.  Here 
is  Otto  Nelson’s  story  of  one  financial  epoch: 

“The  business  was  run  on  remittances.  When  ac¬ 
counts  were  sent  out  for  collection  we  figured  when 
they  would  come  back.  Everybody  in  the  office  knew 
how  much  money  the  postman  ought  to  bring,  and  if 
he  did  not  bring  the  expected  amount,  it  upset  the 
plans. 

“One  Saturday  morning  a  remittance  of  sixty-five  dol¬ 
lars  was  due  from  Richmond,  Ind.  It  had  been  planned 
to  apply  this  to  the  payroll.  When  the  morning  mail 
came  without  the  remittance,  the  bookkeeper  said: 

“‘It  will  probably  come  in  this  afternoon.’ 

“Rut  it  wasn’t  in  the  afternoon  mail,  and  the  cash  for 
the  payroll  was  sixty-five  dollars  short. 

“Mr.  Patterson  started  planning  to  get  the  money. 
He  went  to  the  bank,  but  they  would  not  let  him  have 
any  more.  He  telephoned  to  one  of  the  other  stock¬ 
holders  requesting  a  loan,  stating  that  three  or  four  hun¬ 
dred  dollars  were  due  Monday,  when  he  would  return 
the  loan.  He  was  told  that  he  could  have  it.  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson  sent  me  to  get  it.  When  I  arrived  at  this  stock¬ 
holder’s  office,  he  had  left  and  the  clerk  said  he  didn’t 
know  when  he  would  be  back.  I  telephoned  Mr.  Patter¬ 
son.  He  said : 

\ 

“‘You  wait  fifteen  minutes.’ 

“I  waited  about  ten  minutes  and  Mr.  Patterson  called 
up  and  wanted  to  know  if  he  had  returned.  I  replied 
that  he  had  not,  and  he  said  that  he  would  telephone  to 
another  stockholder  and  told  me  to  stop  there  on  my  way 
back.  I  stopped  at  the  place  and  was  informed  that  Mr. 


LEARNING  HOW  TO  SELL 


101 


Patterson  had  telephoned  but  had  been  told  that  no 
money  would  be  loaned. 

“When  I  returned  Mr.  Patterson  was  worrying  about 
how  he  would  meet  the  payroll.  He  walked  into  the  fac¬ 
tory  and  tried  to  pick  out  enough  men  he  could  trust  who 
would  not  say  anything.  There  had  been  talk  around 
Dayton  that  the  following  month  the  National  Cash 
Register  Company  would  be  bankrupt. 

“Mr.  Patterson  came  back  to  the  office  and  said: 

“‘I  don’t  know  what  we  shall  do!’ 

“He  walked  back  through  the  factory  and  looked  the 
men  over  again.  ‘I  wonder  if  I  could  get  it  from  Steve.’ 

“It  was  about  half  an  hour  before  closing  time.  He 
telephoned  his  brother  Stephen,  who  agreed  to  loan  him 
seventy-five  dollars.  He  hung  up  the  receiver,  grabbed 
me,  started  me  down  the  stairs,  saying: 

“ ‘Don’t  you  stop.  Run  all  the  way  down  there  and  all 
the  way  back.  Don’t  stop  for  anybody.’ 

“Stephen  Patterson  was  in  his  coal  office  on  Ludlow 
Street,  where  the  entrance  to  the  Union  Depot  is  now. 
I  got  down  there  as  fast  as  I  could.  Stephen  was  very 
deliberate.  I  thought  I  was  not  going  to  get  the  money 
in  time,  but  finally  he  gave  it  to  me.  I  got  back  all  out 
of  breath  and  with  only  twelve  minutes  to  spare! 

“Monday  morning’s  mail  brought  nearly  four  hundred 
dollars  and  the  first  thing  Mr.  Patterson  did  was  to  return 
the  seventy-five  dollars  to  Stephen.  Then  he  paid  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  to  get  advertising  matter  from 
the  printer  and  bought  about  one  hundred  dollars’  worth 
of  stamps.  After  that,  cash  for  the  payroll  was  laid 
aside  early  in  the  week.” 

Mr.  Patterson  was  doing  all  this  on  his  own  initiative. 
The  minority  stockholders  could  not  stand  the  pace. 


102 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


They  thought  he  was  over-reaching  himself.  They  be¬ 
longed  to  the  old  school  which  thought  that  the  way  to 
make  money  was  to  cut  down  expenses.  They  stood 
aghast  at  the  advertising  bills — at  putting  out  three  and 
four  hundred  dollars  at  a  clip  for  postage  stamps.  They 
knew  all  about  business  and  they  were  going  to  stop  the 
mad  career  of  this  man.  They  threatened  to  get  an  in¬ 
junction.  That  threat  did  not  get  them  anywhere. 
Then  they  bought  another  cash-register  patent  and  in¬ 
formed  Mr.  Patterson  that  if  he  did  not  buy  them  out  they 
would  start  a  competitive  business.  Mr.  Patterson  did 
not  want  to  buy — he  did  not  have  the  money  to  buy.  He 
tried  to  persuade  Gus  Sander  and  Charlie  Whealen,  who 
were  the  men  holding  most  of  the  minority  stock,  that 
some  day  their  holdings  would  be  valuable  and  that  they 
would  see  a  million  cash  registers  in  use.  But  he  was 
talking  to  frightened  men — they  would  not  listen  to  him. 
They  wanted  to  get  out  and  that  was  all  there  was  to  it, 
and  they  were  willing  to  do  anything  that  would  get  them 
out — for  cash.  They  would  not  take  anything  but  cash 
for  their  stock.  John  Patterson  had  no  cash. 

This  time  the  bank  could  not  be  brought  around  to 
lending  him  money  to  buy  stock.  He  could  not  borrow 
the  money  anywhere.  The  only  property  he  had  was 
his  share  in  the  old  farm  and  this  he  sold  for  the  amount  he 
needed — which  was  sixty-five  hundred  dollars.  Even 
then  the  price  was  ridiculously  low — so  low  that  Mr. 
Patterson  asked  the  purchaser  not  to  make  the  price  he 
paid  public.  The  property  he  then  sold  is  now  worth 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

But  he  had  full  control  of  the  company! 


GENERAL  LEONARD  WOOD  VISITS  THE  N.  C.  R.  FACTORY 


MRS.  JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

With  her  two  children,  Dorothy  Forster  Patterson  (now  Mrs.  Noble  Brandon 
Judah,  of  Chicago),  and  Frederick  Beck  Patterson,  the  present  president  of  the 
N.  C.  R.  Co. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  PRIMER  AND  THE  START  OP  BIG  BUSINESS 


MR.  PATTERSON  often  made  this  statement: 

“There  are  two  things  to  which  I  must  devote 
the  greater  part  of  my  time — the  first  is  adver¬ 
tising,  the  second  selling.  If  we  advertise  properly  we  pave 
the  way  for  our  agents.  If  we  have  a  thoroughly  trained 
selling  force,  the  men  can  sell  our  goods  in  good  times  or 
bad.  The  important  things  to  do,  therefore,  are  to  im¬ 
prove  our  advertising  and  improve  our  sales  force.  If 
we  get  the  orders  we  can  easily  manufacture  the  product 
and  make  the  proper  records,  but  first  we  must  get  the 
orders.” 

I  said  in  the  first  chapter  that  Mr.  Patterson  was  not 
a  salesman.  It  is  not  on  record  that  he  personally  ever 
sold  anything — which  is  probably  the  reason  why  he  was 
so  remarkably  effective  in  working  out  sales  methods,  for 
he  was  not  hampered  by  having  his  view  narrowed  by  his 
own  experience.  But  it  was  a  sore  point  with  some  of  the 
old  salesmen.  One  day  he  criticized  a  demonstration 
made  by  a  fairly  successful  salesman,  and  the  man  burst 
out: 

“I  have  sold  one  hundred  and  eighty  cash  registers  in 
a  year.  That’s  good.  I’m  a  salesman  selling  all  the  time. 
Did  you  ever  sell  one?” 

“Yes,  that  sounds  reasonable,”  answered  Mr.  Patter¬ 
son.  “You  ought  to  know.” 

Then,  as  though  to  change  the  subject,  he  began  a 

103 


104 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


critical  examination  of  a  table  in  the  room.  “This  is  a 
fine  table,  a  very  fine  table.  It’s  all  quarter  sawed  oak. 
You  must  have  paid  a  good  deal  of  money  for  this  table. 
I  couldn’t  make  a  table,  but  I  do  know  this  is  a  fine  table.” 

The  salesman  got  the  point,  and  as  he  was  leaving  Mr. 
Patterson  remarked,  casually: 

“If  you  sold  a  hundred  and  eighty  registers  demon¬ 
strating  that  way,  you  would  sell  four  hundred  demon¬ 
strating  the  right  way.” 

When  Mr.  Patterson  took  over  the  N.  C.  R.  the  only 
full-time  agent  was  Robert  Callahan  in  Washington.  By 
1886  he  had  five  first-class  men  and  he  called  them  to 
Dayton  to  discuss  the  prices  of  the  machines.  In  addi¬ 
tion  to  Callahan,  there  was  Harry  R.  Blood  from  Chicago, 
C.  R.  Lord  from  Boston,  John  Crawford  from  New  York, 
and  Walter  Cool  from  Denver.  They  met  at  the  old 
Phillips  Hotel.  Harry  Blood  fell  ill  and  could  not  leave 
his  bed.  John  Patterson,  calling  to  see  him,  asked  for 
the  first  time  a  question  that  he  was  to  ask  many  thou¬ 
sands  of  times  in  later  years.  He  asked: 

“How  do  you  sell? ” 

Blood  had  been  making  a  remarkable  record.  He  was 
a  well-known  character  about  Chicago  and  where  other 
salesmen  had  been  quite  content  to  sell  a  single  register 
in  a  saloon  Blood  had  recently  managed  to  sell  a  register 
for  each  barkeeper.  He  told  Mr.  Patterson  how  he  made 
his  sales.  He  had  no  real  method,  for  he  sold  largely  on 
personality,  but  his  big  point  was  that  he  never  brought 
up  the  matter  of  a  cash  register  until  he  had  made  friends 
not  only  with  the  proprietor  but  with  all  the  people  who 
would  use  the  registers. 

“All  the  rest  of  the  men  ought  to  know  about  this,” 
exclaimed  Mr.  Patterson,  and  that  was  the  real  beginning 


THE  START  OF  BIG  BUSINESS 


105 


of  what  later  developed  into  the  N.  C.  R.  method  of  train¬ 
ing  salesmen.  And  also  it  was  the  beginning  of  the  con¬ 
vention  idea,  for  telling  Blood’s  story  started  the  other 
salesmen  to  telling  their  stories.  Mr.  Patterson  drove 
them  out  in  a  tally-ho  to  the  soldiers’  home.  He  always 
believed  in  doing  everything  in  good  style.  He  asked 
Joseph  H.  Crane,  who  had  married  his  sister  Julia  and  who 
was  known  as  the  best  wall-paper  salesman  in  Ohio,  to 
sit  in  with  them  at  their  meetings.  Mr.  Patterson  asked 
Crane  what  he  thought  of  the  cash  register,  which  is  an¬ 
other  characteristic  action,  for  it  was  a  habit  that  grew 
on  him  to  ask  those  who  were  at  a  meeting  what  they  were 
getting  out  of  a  meeting  and  what  they  would  do  to  im¬ 
prove  it. 

“You  have  a  good  product,”  answered  Crane,  “but 
you  don’t  know  how  to  sell  it.” 

“Don’t  know  how  to  sell  it?” 

“Yes,  you  are  trying  to  sell  a  man  in  his  store  instead 
of  at  the  hotel.” 

And  then  he  went  on  to  explain  that  in  order  properly 
to  make  a  sale  the  prospective  customer  ought  to  be  taken 
away  from  the  annoyances  and  diversions  of  his  store 
duties  and  brought  to  a  place  where  he  could  give  his  sole 
attention  to  the  register.  The  meetings  were  such  a  suc¬ 
cess  that  when  they  were  over  Mr.  Patterson  said : 

“We  have  all  learned  so  much  that  I  think  we  ought  to 
have  a  meeting  every  year.” 

And  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  famous  N.  C.  R. 
conventions. 

The  company  sold  ten  hundred  and  fifty  registers  in 
1886 — which  was  more  than  double  the  number  they  had 
sold  in  the  previous  year — and  also  in  that  year  Joseph 
H.  Crane  came  regularly  with  the  company.  He  and  his 


106 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


brother,  James  Crane,  had  tired  of  travelling  and  had 
opened  a  big  wall-paper  store  in  Dayton,  which  then  had 
about  fifty  thousand  people.  It  was  a  fine  store,  but  it 
was  a  store  big  enough  for  a  city  of  half  a  million  and  the 
Crane  boys  could  not  make  it  go.  The  importance  of 
Mr.  Crane  to  the  organization  can  hardly  be  overesti¬ 
mated,  because  his  methods  of  salesmanship  were  even¬ 
tually  impressed  upon  all  the  N.  C.  R.  salesmen  through 
what  is  known  as  the  “  N.  C.  R.  Primer,”  and  which  repre¬ 
sents  the  first  attempt  anywhere  in  the  world  to  make 
selling  other  than  a  purely  individual  effort. 

In  the  guaranteed-territory  plan  Mr.  Patterson  had  not 
so  much  introduced  a  new  idea  as  made  a  policy  out  of 
what  had  been  in  many  firms  a  custom.  In  his  intensive 
circularization  he  had  only  done  more  regularly  what 
others  had  done  less  regularly.  In  deciding  to  have  an 
annual  convention  of  salesmen  he  had  inaugurated  a 
practice  that  was  new  only  in  its  regularity.  But  in  the 
primer — in  attempting  to  lay  down  the  exact  words  which 
each  salesmen  should  use — he  hit  upon  something  ab¬ 
solutely  new,  and  in  the  manual  which  followed  the  primer 
he  also  hit  upon  something  else  absolutely  new.  The 
primer  contained  the  sales  talk;  the  manual  contained  an 
answer  to  every  possible  question  that  a  prospect  might 
ask.  It  was  all  in  line  with  his  thought  that  there  was 
only  one  best  way  of  doing  anything  and  that  when  that 
one  best  way  was  found,  all  should  follow  it. 

The  first  primer  was  brought  out  in  June,  1887,  and, 
since  there  is  a  good  deal  of  confusion  not  only  as  to  its 
origin  but  as  to  the  date  of  its  origin,  it  is  particularly  for¬ 
tunate  that  a  first-hand  account  by  Joseph  H.  Crane  has 
been  discovered.  Some  years  later,  talking  before  a  con¬ 
vention  in  London,  Mr.  Crane  said: 


THE  START  OF  BIG  BUSINESS  107 

“Mr.  J.  H.  Patterson  came  to  me  with  a  proposition  to 
join  the  company  and  sell  machines. 

“At  that  time  I  had  been  selling  goods  for  nearly 
twenty  years,  and  he  thought  I  had  experience  enough 
and  would  succeed.  He  offered  certain  inducements,  and 
was  very  sanguine  of  the  future.  I  shall  never  forget  how 
hopeful  he  was.  I  remember  one  thing  he  said  to  me  as 
an  inducement  to  join: 

“‘Last  month  we  sold  twelve  registers;  but,  mark  my 
words,  the  time  will  come  when  we  will  sell  five  machines 
a  day!’ 

“I  said:  ‘Don’t  let  your  enthusiasm  carry  you  away — 
don’t  go  too  far.  ’ 

“He  said:  ‘I  fully  believe  we  shall  sell  five  machines  a 
day.’ 

“I  consented  to  go  with  the  company.  I  had  a  job 
when  I  joined  the  company,  had  a  boy  two  years  old  and 
one  two  months  old,  and  needed  enough  to  keep  their 
mouths  filled  all  the  time,  yet  I  gave  it  up  to  sell  registers 
on  commission.  I  had  nothing  ahead  but  enough  to 
pay  my  expenses  for  a  week  or  two  when  I  started  out, 
but  I  realized  that  in  selling  these  registers  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  to  understand  them,  so  I  spent  an  entire  day  in  the 
factory  in  a  fruitless  endeavour  to  take  a  machine  apart, 
and  up  to  about  five  o’clock  I  had  utterly  failed  to  get 
it  apart.  I  went  home  feeling  that  I  had  done  a  good 
day’s  work,  and  the  next  day  I  tried  to  put  it  back  again, 
and  failing  that  I  felt  myself  fully  equipped  to  go  out  and 
explain  them! 

“So  I  went,  and  I  want  to  say  to  you  right  here  that 
on  my  first  trip  I  took  with  me  a  full  line  of  registers,  all 
we  then  made,  five.  I  took  two  paper  machines  and  three 
self -adders;  we  call  them  detail-adders  now.  That  was 


108 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


a  full  line.  The  30-key  detail-adder  was  the  king 
of  them  all.  In  my  wisdom  I  selected  the  town  of 
Findlay,  Ohio,  as  the  place  to  open  my  career  in,  and  I 
showed  my  good  judgment,  because  that  town  had  a 
boom  on. 

“I  arrived  at  Findlay  about  4:30  in  the  morning  and  I 
was  unable  to  secure  accommodation  in  the  hotel,  the 
‘Joy  House,’  but  the  next  night  I  was  successful  in  induc¬ 
ing  a  local  barber  to  allow  me  to  sleep  in  one  of  his  chairs. 
The  second  day  I  got  half  of  the  parlour  of  the  ‘Joy  House’ 
in  which  to  show  my  samples.  I  wish  you  gentlemen 
could  see  the  ‘Joy  House.’  You  would  appreciate  what 
having  half  the  parlour  meant.  Anyway,  I  got  it,  and 
then  I  started  out  with  my  enormous  fund  of  information 
on  National  Cash  Registers  to  interview  the  enthusiastic 
merchants  of  Findlay.  At  six  o’clock  on  Friday  night  I 
had  secured  interviews  and  made  demonstrations  to  six¬ 
teen  merchants.  I  had  not  secured  any  signatures  and 
wanted  to  know  why.  After  I  had  explained  to  a  man  all 
I  knew  about  the  machine  and  a  good  deal  I  did  not  know, 
some  would  say:  ‘Our  people  ought  to  have  them,’  and 
others  that  ‘I  will  ask  my  partner.’ 

“  After  the  first  man  went  out  I  went  to  the  machine  and 
said  to  myself:  ‘There  is  a  point  I  forgot  to  explain,  and 
there  is  another  and  another.  ’  I  meant  not  to  forget  these 
points  again,  so  I  got  the  back  of  a  statement  slip  and 
made  a  note  on  the  top  of  that  slip  of  the  things  I  had  for¬ 
gotten  to  tell  ‘A’  and  the  second  and  third  things  I  had 
forgotten  to  tell  ‘B.’  I  asked  myself  the  same  question 
when  the  third  man  went  out  without  signing — I  had  for¬ 
gotten  to  tell  him  certain  things  about  the  register. 
When  those  sixteen  men  had  gone  out  I  still  found  that 
there  were  things  I  had  forgotten,  and  I  know  that  the 


THE  START  OF  BIG  BUSINESS 


109 


reason  those  people  did  not  buy  was  because  I  had  not 
done  justice  to  the  machine. 

“The  little  bunch  of  money  I  had  borrowed  for  ex¬ 
penses  was  getting  weak  and  I  was  getting  worried.  My 
birdies  back  in  the  nest  had  their  mouths  open  and  it  was 
necessary  for  me  to  contribute.  That  night  I  went  to  see 
a  man  who  had  a  restaurant,  and  after  some  time  I  secured 
his  order  for  a  Number  2.  Then  I  felt  better.  The  next 
day  I  closed  three  of  those  sixteen,  and  then  I  went  ahead 
and  did  pretty  well  the  following  week  and  from  then  on. 

“While  I  used  the  memorandum  I  had  prepared,  I  re¬ 
vised  it  from  time  to  time,  as  I  realized  that  to  get  a  man’s 
order  it  was  necessary  to  explain  the  entire  machine  to 
him.  I  knew  more  at  the  end  of  a  week  than  I  did  when 
I  started  with  the  machine.  I  knew  it  was  a  good  thing, 
and  I  was  being  educated  to  the  fact.  I  realized  that  it 
was  necessary  to  transfer  my  information  to  a  prospective 
purchaser.  That  was  all  that  was  necessary,  but  it  had 
to  be  done  in  a  systematic  way.  The  first  thing  I  men¬ 
tioned  was  the  sign,  the  next  was  the  indicator,  then  I 
demonstrated  the  machine  and  used  some  money  to  il¬ 
lustrate  it,  and  finally  I  got  so  I  did  not  have  to  refer  to 
this  memorandum  every  time,  and  later  it  became  un¬ 
necessary  to  refer  to  it  at  all.  I  tore  it  up  as  I  found  I 
could  explain  the  points  in  the  same  order,  and  almost 
in  the  same  words.  At  the  end  of  ninety  days  I  realized 
fully  that  I  was  saying  the  same  thing  to  every  man  and 
I  had  been  successful — rather  more  so  than  any  one  else. 

“Mr.  J.  H.  Patterson  called  me  in  one  day  to  his  little 
office  and  asked: 

“‘How  do  you  sell  registers?  What  is  your  method? 
What  is  your  system?’ 

“‘You  would  be  amused,’  I  answered,  as  I  felt  my  chest 


110 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


was  out.  ‘You  should  put  your  ear  to  the  keyhole  and 
hear  me  make  a  demonstration/  I  think  that  was  the 
way  we  started  with  that  word  ‘demonstration/  ‘I  say 
the  same  thing,  word  for  word,  to  every  one  of  them/ 

“  ‘  You  don’t  mean  that,  do  you?  ’  exclaimed  Mr.  Patter¬ 
son. 

‘“I  do;  I  go  right  over  the  same  thing/ 

“‘Well,’  he  said,  ‘that  would  become  monotonous.’ 

“‘It  has  never  got  monotonous  yet.  The  reason  it  is 
not  monotonous  is  because  it  is  to  different  people  every 
time/ 

“‘Now/  I  said,  ‘you  sit  down  on  this  seat.  You  forget 
everything  you  know  about  a  cash  register  and  imagine 
yourself  a  grocer  in  a  country  town.  You  never  heard  of 
a  cash  register,  and  I  will  explain  it  to  you  in  my  successful 
manner,  and  then  I  want  to  ask  you  whether  or  not  you 
understand  and  appreciate  it,  not  knowing  anything  but 
what  I  tell  you/ 

“I  went  through  my  little  talk.  After  I  had  finished,  I 
asked  him  if  he  would  have  bought.  He  said : 

“‘Yes/ 

“Just  then  a  big  man  with  a  tall  cap  on  came  in,  the 
vice-president  (Mr.  F.  J.  Patterson).  He  asked: 

“‘What  is  going  on  here?’ 

“Mr.  John  Patterson  got  up  from  his  chair  and  said  to 
the  vice-president: 

“‘Sit  down  on  this  chair  and  forget  everything  you 
know  about  a  cash  register.  Imagine  yourself  a  grocer 
in  a  country  town,  and  Mr.  Crane  will  explain  the  register 
to  you,  and  then  see  if  you  understand  it  when  he  gets 
through/ 

“It  was  the  first  demonstration.  I  knew  it  so  well,  I 
had  said  it  so  many  times.  That  is  the  reason  I  could 


THE  START  OF  BIG  BUSINESS  111 

not  forget  it.  I  could  say  it  with  one  hand  tied  behind 
me.  So  I  went  through  it. 

“The  idea  was  simply  this:  I  knew  that  a  cash  register 
was  a  good  thing.  I  knew  that  retail  merchants  ought 
to  have  it,  and  if  they  knew  this  as  well  as  I  did,  they 
would  buy.  My  only  duty  was  to  explain  all  about  it 
from  beginning  to  end.  I  could  go  off  at  a  tangent,  take 
up  an  objection,  and  go  back  where  I  left  off,  because  1 
had  done  that  so  many  times.  The  president  said  that 
was  a  good  idea,  and  that  it  was  the  solution.  I  said  that 
there  were  a  whole  lot  of  men  who  were  better  salesmen, 
but  who  did  not  sell  so  many  machines,  because  they  did 
not  do  it  systematically. 

“‘I  will  call  the  stenographer;  you  dictate  this  to  him 
and  get  it  typewritten,’  said  Mr.  Patterson. 

“Mr.  Patterson  had  copies  made  and  sent  to  every 
agent.  We  had  twelve  of  them.  He  said: 

“‘Crane  sells  more  machines  than  any  of  you  fellows, 
and  he  sells  them  this  way.  I  suggest  that  you  all  learn 
this.’ 

“A  little  later  we  had  it  rewritten,  for  we  were  putting 
improvements  on  the  machines  all  the  time.  We  called 
it  ‘How  I  Sell  National  Cash  Registers,  by  J.  H.  Crane.’ 

“I  have  the  original  primer,  and,  I  think,  the  only 
copy.  What  it  says  in  that  primer  (not  because  I  wrote 
it)  we  do  yet.  It  says  in  that  primer:  ‘When  you  go  to 
a  town,  stop  at  the  best  hotel  and  get  the  best  room  you 
can.’  That  was  right  then ;  it  is  right  now.  You  are  rep¬ 
resenting  a  first-class  concern — do  it  from  the  shine  on 
your  shoes  to  the  room  you  occupy.  Look  it.  Have 
the  virtue,  but  assume  the  virtue  if  you  have  it  not.  Then 
I  said: 

“‘Have  a  table  for  each  register,  cover  each  register. 


112 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Sit  the  customer  with  his  back  to  the  light,  and  so  arrange 
the  position  of  the  machine  that  while  you  are  explaining 
one  the  others  are  not  in  sight/ 

“That  is  right  to-day.  That  is  the  reason  we  have  a 
demonstration  room  where  there  is  nothing  to  distract  the 
customer’s  attention.  We  have  something  to  tell  him, 
and  it  is  important  to  him  that  he  understand  all  we  tell 
or  show  him.  Don’t  let  anything  distract  his  attention. 
We  don’t  have  calendars  on  the  wall;  we  used  to  have 
clocks,  but  we  found  when  a  man  was  about  halfway 
through  his  customer  wanted  to  go  to  luncheon.  Calen¬ 
dars  remind  a  customer  of  time. 

“We  changed  the  name  of  the  book.  There  was  too 
much  ‘Crane’  about  it.  We  called  it  the  primer.  The 
primer  has  been  revised.  I  have  learnt  them  all.  It 
has  been  revised  several  times,  until  now  we  feel  that  the 
primer  is  up  to  date.  It  can  hardly  keep  pace  with  the 
registers,  as  we  are  continually  adding  improvements,  but 
we  must  talk  primer  and  add  the  new  features  as  re¬ 
quired.” 

The  primer  marked  the  beginning  of  a  departure  that 
had  been  in  Mr.  Patterson’s  mind  ever  since  beginning 
the  business,  and  that  was  to  get  away  from  having  so 
large  a  proportion  of  its  production  sold  to  saloons.  Al¬ 
ready  in  the  few  years  that  he  had  been  managing  the 
company  the  check  that  the  register  held  on  barkeepers 
had  become  so  thoroughly  established  that  it  was  hardly 
necessary  to  sell  saloons.  They  bought  almost  as  a  matter 
of  course.  Mr.  Patterson  was  not  then  a  teetotaler  and 
the  agents,  spending  so  much  of  their  time  in  saloons,  were 
anything  but  teetotalers.  But  it  was  a  phase  of  business 
with  which  Mr.  Patterson  did  not  want  to  be  connected. 
He  had  already  firmly  in  mind  the  belief  that  making  and 


THE  START  OF  BIG  BUSINESS 


113 


selling  cash  registers  was  performing  a  service  and  it 
did  not  go  at  all  with  his  ideas  to  have  that  service  ex¬ 
clusively  confined  to  the  saloon  trade.  That  is  one  of 
the  reasons  why  he  was  so  intent  on  having  his  salesmen 
learn  the  primer.  It  is  also  one  of  the  reasons  why  the 
word  “saloon”  never  appeared  in  the  lists  of  purchasers 
which  went  out  every  week.  A  “saloon”  was  either  a 
“cafe”  or  a  “hotel.” 

By  1887  the  number  of  agents  had  greatly  increased, 
and  instead  of  selling  only  to  saloons,  as  in  the  beginning, 
the  registers  were  going  into  ten  lines  of  business  and 
were  beginning  to  be  fairly  established  in  drug  and  grocery 
stores.  They  sold  nineteen  hundred  and  ninety-five 
registers  in  1887 — that  is,  not  quite  double  the  number  of 
the  previous  year.  This  was  the  eventful  year.  The  con¬ 
vention,  which  had  been  such  a  tiny  affair  in  the  previous 
year,  was  this  year  a  big  affair  and  the  Dayton  papers 
gave  a  whole  page  to  it.  The  agents  were  told  that  they 
were  expected  to  learn  the  primer.  They  received  the 
news  without  enthusiasm  and  mostly  proceeded  to  do  as 
they  pleased. 

Mr.  Patterson  kept  to  his  theory  of  devoting  most  of  his 
time  to  advertising  and  selling,  and  he  brought  out  the 
first  issue  of  The  N.  C.  R.  which,  I  believe,  was  the 
first  house  organ  ever  published.  The  publication  of 
The  N.  C.  R.  came  about  quite  naturally.  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson  wanted  to  be  constantly  in  touch  with  all  of 
the  agents.  He  thought  that  a  business  should  not  have 
secrets  but  that  what  one  agent  knew  was  good  for  every 
other  agent  to  know.  He  believed  that  the  progress  of 
business  depends  upon  the  interchange  of  information 
among  those  in  business — the  very  idea  on  which  System 
was  founded — and  he  wanted  to  establish  not  only  an 


114 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


easy  method  of  communication  with  the  agents  but  also  a 
forum  in  which  the  agents  could  tell  how  and  why  they 
made  their  sales.  As  he  said  later: 

“The  success  of  this  company  has  been  due  to  the  en¬ 
thusiasm  we  have  been  able  to  inspire  in  it,  by  persevering, 
by  coaxing,  by  forcing,  by  recognizing  merit,  by  publishing 
good  things  done,  by  offering  prizes.  To  be  successful 
you  must  not  only  have  ability  but  you  must  treat  your 
men  so  that  they  will  have  confidence  in  you  and  in  the 
company.” 

He  had  been  sending  out  bulletins  and  notes  to  sales¬ 
men.  In  bringing  out  the  first  issue  of  The  N.  C.  R.  he 
defined  its  purpose  thus: 

In  place  of  sending  out  circulars  to  agents,  we  will  issue  every  two 
weeks  a  small  paper  devoted  to  the  interests  of  all  connected  with  this 
company,  and  to  be  distributed  only  to  its  agents.  Its  principal 
object  will  be  to  distribute  information  and  serve  as  a  medium  for 
asking  and  answering  questions  among  agents.  The  first  issue  will 
be  soon  after  June  1st.  The  first  copies  will  be  rather  insignificant, 
but  we  trust  not  uninteresting.  While  we  prefer  to  publish  the 
names  of  contributors,  we  will  not  do  so  if  the  agents  desire  to  sign 
anonymously. 

We  would  be  pleased  to  know  the  manner  of  selling  adopted  by 
different  agents,  what  they  think  their  strongest  points;  points  to 
avoid  as  well  as  points  to  make.  This  paper  is  especially  to  assist 
agents  and  we  trust  they  will  not  only  take  an  interest  in  but  con¬ 
tribute  largely  to  it. 

In  the  first  issue  (J.  H.  P.  was  himself  the  editor)  he 
published  a  long  letter  from  J.  W.  Allinson  telling  how  he 
was  selling  registers  in  Great  Britain.  Some  of  the  agents 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  letting  down  on  their  sales  after 
a  certain  number  of  registers  had  been  sold  in  a  month, 
from  a  fear  that  their  commissions  would  be  reduced. 


THE  START  OF  BIG  BUSINESS 


115 


It  was  then  the  pleasing  and  intelligent  custom  among 
many  employers  of  reducing  commissions  if  an  agent 
seemed  to  be  making  too  much  money,  just  as  it  was  later 
the  custom  among  descendants  of  these  employers  to  cut 
the  piece  rates  when  any  employee  seemed  to  be  doing 
too  much  work,  or,  rather,  getting  too  much  for  it.  He 
gave  an  article  in  this  issue  to  commissions  and  in  it  he 
said  he  was  trying  to  force  agents  who  were  making  only 
seventy-five  dollars  a  month  up  to  six  hundred  dollars. 
The  first  issue  of  The  N.  C.  R.  brought  out  this  letter 
from  Harry  Blood: 

Gents: — The  first  edition  of  your  paper  received,  and  the  first  I 
had  known  of  its  publication.  The  idea  is  a  good  one,  and  when  all 
the  agents  become  familiar  with  it  I  think  those  having  the  register 
sales  at  heart  will  contribute  largely. 

The  system  I  have  of  working  my  territory  is,  I  think,  a  good 
one  if  followed  up.  I  take  the  names  of  all  I  call  upon,  and  if  not 
successful  in  closing  the  sale,  I  classify  their  names  and  business,  and 
continually  mail  them  circulars  and  testimonials  from  users  in  their 
immediate  vicinity.  Before  I  call  again  I  write  them  with  a  type¬ 
writer  that  I  will  call  again  on  such  a  date,  etc.  An  instance  from 
the  circulars  that  occurred  in  Attica,  Ind.,  shows  the  circulars  are 
profitable  to  me.  I  was  unable  to  sell  a  party  there  I  knew  needed  a 
register.  On  my  return  home  I  mailed  him  for  a  few  days  a  circular 
sealed  in  each  mail.  His  order  came  by  mail  to  me.  Another,  two 
parties  in  Bloomington,  Ill.,  who  I  knew  ought  to  have  a  register, 
would  not  buy  when  I  was  there,  and  for  ten  days  I  mailed  them  cir¬ 
culars,  then  wrote  them  when  I  would  next  call.  When  I  did  call, 
I  took  their  order  without  much  trouble,  and  I  am  satisfied  without  the 
circulars  I  would  have  waited  a  long  time  before  these  orders  could 
have  been  taken.  This  week  I  will  visit  a  few  towns  in  Michigan, 
where  I  have  been  mailing  circulars,  and  will  write  you  my  experience 
of  what  value  the  circulars  have  been  to  me. 

Crane’s  letter  in  the  last  issue  is  good,  and  the  talk  very  effec¬ 
tive.  The  system  of  having  the  bell  ring  after  every  sale  enables  the 
proprietor  to  more  carefully  watch  his  business,  and  in  stores  where 


116 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


they  charge  a  large  number  of  accounts  in  one  day  I  recommend  the 
system  as  used  by  Pierce  &  Co.  of  Oakland. 

My  sales  the  past  two  weeks  were  to  merchants  as  follows: 
Groceries,  boots  and  shoes,  restaurants,  hardware,  saloons,  and 
R.  R.  lunch  counters.  When  the  agents  sell  to  any  merchant  outside 
of  those  I  would  suggest  they  inform  us.  I  have  an  application  from 
a  man  running  a  flour  mill. 

H.  E.  Blood. 

Chicago. 

Mr.  Patterson  not  only  put  into  The  N.  C.  R.  the 
records  made  during  the  month  by  each  salesman  and  as 
much  of  their  methods  as  they  would  write  in  to  him,  but 
also  he  began  to  go  around  among  the  agencies  himself 
and  to  publish  in  the  paper  the  most  interesting  experi¬ 
ences  that  he  encountered. 

He  made  up  this  list  of  “Don’ts” — which  is  of  almost 
general  application. 

Don’t  advertise  the  Register  as  a  thief  catcher. 

Don’t  try  to  make  out  clerks  are  all  stealing. 

Don’t  do  all  the  talking. 

Don’t  answer  a  question  except  with  the  truth. 

Don’t  wait  for  a  man  to  come  to  your  office  to  buy. 

Don’t  stop  calling  on  a  man  if  he  says  he  doesn’t  need  one  when 
you  know  he  does. 

Don’t  think  the  people  in  your  territory  are  harder  to  sell  than 
anywhere  else.  We  know  by  experience  they  are  not. 

Don’t  try  to  sell  a  systematizer  without  a  system. 

Don’t  imagine  wre  make  any  more  money  than  any  retailer  when 
they  sell  the  same  amount.  Our  expenses  are  terrible  in  comparison. 

Don’t  think  you  can  handle  a  territory  of  1,000,000  inhabitants. 
It  has  been  proven  to  us  that  a  small  territory  is  more  profitable  than 
a  large  one. 

Don’t  think  a  firm  is  doing  too  much  business  to  use  our  registers. 
There  are  but  few  exceptions  where  they  cannot  be  sold. 


THE  START  OF  BIG  BUSINESS 


117 


Don’t  fail  to  write  us  when  any  points  come  up  that  you  are  not 
familiar  with. 

Don’t  remain  idle. 

Don't  read  these  once,  but  twice.  We  want  you  to  make  money 
and  don’t  want  you  to  fail. 

Don’t  forget  while  trying  to  sell  a  storekeeper  to  call  attention 
to  our  credit  books  for  registering  credit  sales. 

He  found  that  publishing  the  number  of  registers  sold 
by  salesmen  was  unfair  because  it  did  not  show  the  rela¬ 
tion  of  the  salesman  to  his  opportunities.  He  said: 

“Experience  shows  a  register  can  be  sold  for  every  four 
hundred  people  in  every  town  in  the  United  States. 
Divide  the  population  of  your  territory  by  four  hundred 
and  the  result  will  show  the  number  of  registers  that  can 
be  sold  in  your  territory.  Multiply  the  result  by  your 
commission.  The  result  will  be  the  amount  of  money 
you  can  make  providing  you  push  the  business.” 

Thereafter,  instead  of  publishing  the  number  of  regis¬ 
ters  sold,  he  published  the  percentages  of  realization  to 
the  possible  realization  on  the  basis  of  one  register  for  each 
four  hundred  people  and  together  with  it  the  gross  sales 
by  points,  twenty -five  dollars  being  a  point.  Out  of  this 
grew  the  quota  system,  which  is  another  of  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson’s  innovations  in  business. 

Eventually  the  whole  United  States  was  divided  into 
districts  on  the  basis  of  population  and  a  quota  for  each 
district  set;  first  on  one  register  for  each  four  hundred 
people,  and  later,  on  experience  and  the  growth  of  the  pop¬ 
ulation.  Each  district  was  supposed  to  sell  its  quota  not 
once  but  every  year,  which  up  to  that  time  was  an  ab¬ 
solutely  unheard-of  idea  in  a  non-perishable  product  like 
a  cash  register.  The  sales  thought  had  always  been  to 
sell  a  district  and  then  pass  on  to  a  new  one.  Mr.  Patter- 


118 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


son  believed  that  if  you  sold  a  hundred  registers  in  a  dis¬ 
trict  this  year  you  ought  to  sell  at  least  a  hundred  in  the 
same  district  the  next  year.  It  was  a  bold  and  revolu¬ 
tionary  idea  and  is  another  distinguishing  feature  of  Amer¬ 
ican  salesmanship  on  the  Patterson  model.  And  through 
all  these  years,  although  N.  C.  R.  quotas  have  often  been 
increased,  never  have  they  been  decreased — although  as 
far  back  as  1890  wise  men,  thoroughly  steeped  in  the  tradi¬ 
tions  of  business,  were  beginning  to  talk  about  the  country 
having  reached  the  cash-register  saturation  point! 

In  1888  Mr.  Patterson  married  Katherine  Dudley  Beck, 
of  Brookline,  Mass.,  a  member  of  an  old  New  England 
family,  a  woman  of  charming  personality,  fond  of  riding 
and  outdoor  sports.  Shortly  after  their  marriage  he 
bought  the  home  of  Robert  Steele,  at  First  and  Ludlow 
streets.  This  house  is  now  the  N.  C.  R.  City  Club,  where 
educational  and  recreational  activities  are  carried  on  for 
employees.  Many  community  meetings  are  held  here. 
June  22,  1892,  Frederick  Beck  Patterson,  now  president 
of  the  National  Cash  Register  Company  and  the  only 
son,  was  born.  October  27, 1893,  Dorothy  Forster  Patter¬ 
son,  now  Mrs.  Noble  Brandon  Judah,  of  Chicago,  was 
born.  In  the  spring  of  1894  Mrs.  Patterson  contracted 
typhoid  fever  and,  after  a  brief  illness,  died  in  June  of  the 
same  year. 

About  1888  the  Cash  Register  Company  was  beginning 
to  make  itself  a  power.  It  had  its  selling  ideas  born.  It 
was  not  much  of  a  company  but  it  was  beginning  to  make 
a  great  deal  of  noise — although  that  noise  was  not  taken 
seriously.  Its  annual  convention  was  already  a  feature 
of  Dayton.  No  one  but  Mr.  Patterson  knew  how  really 
precarious  the  business  was  or  how  he  had  been  twisting 
and  turning  the  dollars.  He  knew  but  he  did  not  care, 


A  BELIEVER  IN  POCKET  NOTE-BOOKS 


“  Avoid  th 

y 

/.Spi  . 


V  When 

/ ' 


The 


“J.  H.  P.  ’’started  the  habit  back  in  the  coal  days  of  carrying  in  his  vest  pocket 
a  little  two-by-three-inch  book  in  which  he  had  his  schedule  for  the  day  and  in 
which  he  also  jotted  down  every  fact  which  he  thought  would  be  of  use  to  the 
company 


i 


MR.  PATTERSON  S  BEDROOM  EQUIPPED  FOR  REST  AND  WORK 


THE  START  OF  BIG  BUSINESS  119 

for  he  could  not  see  anything  but  success  ahead.  He 
said: 

“Business  is  founded  on  confidence;  success  on  coopera¬ 
tion.” 

He  had  the  confidence  and  he  was  gaining  the  coopera¬ 
tion. 


CHAPTER  VIH 

THE  BIG  DRIVE 

JOHN  PATTERSON  kept  unceasingly  pushing  the 
advertising  and  selling.  He  was  spending  a  good 
deal  of  money  on  advertising  and  he  found  that 
much  of  it  was  being  wasted.  Many  of  the  circulars  were 
being  torn  up  by  clerks.  He  found  that  the  agents  did 
not  understand  what  advertising  meant,  and  in  one  office 
came  across  an  accumulation  of  forty  thousand  circulars. 
All  the  advertising  was  direct  and  sent  in  sealed  envelopes 
with  two-cent  stamps.  Even  in  1889  he  was  spending  an 
average  of  four  thousand  dollars  a  month  for  printing  and 
postage,  and  he  calculated  that  each  register  cost  $5.24 
from  the  home  office  for  circularizing.  This  he  thought 
was  high.  Therefore  he  determined  to  have  an  advertis¬ 
ing  manager,  and  in  February,  1889,  he  engaged  T.  C. 
Coffman.  Then  in  the  fall  of  1890  Mr.  Patterson  sent 
for  E.  D.  Gibbs,  now  the  advertising  manager  of  the  B.  F. 
Goodrich  Rubber  Company. 

“I  went  with  the  National  Cash  Register  Company  as 
advertising  manager  in  the  fall  of  1890,”  Mr.  Gibbs  told 
me.  “I  knew  nothing  much  about  advertising — all  I 
possessed  was  a  few  original  ideas.  I  made  up  some  of 
these,  the  company  bought  them,  and  later  on  I  received 
a  courteous  letter  from  Mr.  J.  H.  Patterson  inviting  me 
to  go  to  Dayton  at  his  expense  to  talk  over  advertising 
matters. 

“The  factory  I  saw  on  the  first  visit  wasn’t  much  to 

uo 


THE  BIG  DRIVE 


121 


boast  of.  The  officers  of  the  company  had  no  mahogany 
desks  and  there  wasn’t  an  oriental  rug  to  be  seen.  Cheap 
wooden  partitions  separated  the  offices.  Mr.  Patterson 
offered  me  the  position  of  advertising  manager. 

“‘When  would  you  want  me?’  I  asked. 

“‘Next  Monday,’  he  replied.  The  interview  took 
place  Wednesday.  I  gathered  the  impression  that  he 
did  things  quickly.  The  impression  still  remains! 

“Now  in  view  of  all  the  publicity  the  N.  C.  R.  has  had 
during  the  past  few  years  on  the  matter  of  salaries,  it  might 
be  interesting  to  mention  the  pay  I  was  to  receive.  Mr. 
Patterson  said: 

“‘The  highest-paid  official  in  our  business — one  of  our 
oldest  employees — gets  $37.50  per  week.  I  will  pay  you 
the  same.’ 

“I  accepted.  Twenty-five  dollars  a  week  would  have 
looked  good  in  1889.  Dayton,  then  as  now,  had  cheap 
markets  and  house  rents  were  low.  So  I  went  to  work. 
But  instead  of  going  to  Dayton  the  following  Monday 
I  visited,  at  Mr.  Patterson’s  suggestion,  all  of  the  eastern 
and  central  offices  of  the  company. 

“‘We  know  nothing  about  advertising,’  said  Mr. 
Patterson,  ‘  but  we  want  to  learn.  Some  day  we  will  have 
a  big  business.  Good  advertising  will  get  it  for  us.  Visit 
the  agents.  Secure  all  the  ideas  from  them  that  you  can. 
Find  out  their  needs.  Those  men  are  in  the  field  and  they 
know  what  is  needed.’” 

John  H.  Patterson  never  pretended  to  know  anything 
about  advertising,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  was  probably 
the  first  man  in  any  business  other  than  the  patent  medi¬ 
cine  to  make  advertising  an  integral  part  of  his  business. 
His  ideas  on  advertising  will  be  taken  up  in  another  chap¬ 
ter,  for  they  are  a  subject  all  of  themselves.  It  is  here 


122 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


enough  to  say  that  he  believed  the  only  advertising  worth 
while  was  that  which  advertised  for  business.  He  had  no 
time  whatsoever  for  what  to-day  is  called  “institutional 
advertising.”  He  did  a  great  deal  of  institutional  ad¬ 
vertising  but  he  did  that  through  the  institution  itself 
which,  as  soon  as  he  could  afford  it,  he  practically  put  on  a 
billboard  and  then  saw  to  it  that  it  stayed  there.  But 
all  his  direct  advertising,  and  later,  when  he  came  to  use 
it,  all  his  periodical  and  newspaper  advertising,  were 
directed  to  the  single  point  of  showing  prospects  that  they 
needed  the  cash  register.  Every  piece  of  advertising  had 
to  be  simple  and  obvious  and  contain  an  illustration  of  a 
cash  register.  He  was  continually  changing  his  advertising 
manager.  He  could  never  find  an  artist  that  suited  him 
because  they  would  insist  on  drawing  pictures  as  pictures 
instead  of  pictures  to  tell  the  use  of  the  cash  register. 

But  at  this  time  advertising  had  not  been  largely  de¬ 
veloped  beyond  what  were  called  the  “outputs,”  The 
N.  C.  R.  and  other  direct  matter.  He  had  been  work¬ 
ing  to  overcome  the  objections  of  the  clerks.  He  put  in 
and  for  many  years  maintained  a  “Clerk’s  Corner”  in  The 
N.  C.  R .,  which  contained  suggestions  as  to  how  clerks 
might  make  themselves  more  valuable.  He  held  prize- 
essay  contests  for  clerks.  And  already  he  had  seen  that 
the  cash  register  could  be  made  considerably  more  than 
a  mere  checking  device  and  begun  to  do  something  in 
the  way  of  working  out  systems  for  storekeepers.  By 
1892  Mr.  Patterson  and  Mr.  Gibbs  had  evolved  quite  a 
series  of  booklets  for  storekeepers.  Among  them  were: 
“Five  Years’  Experience  of  a  Retailer,”  “The  A.  B.  C. 
of  Business,”  “Economy  and  Extravagance,”  “Net 
Saving,”  “On  the  Road  to  Riches,”  “The  Refinement 
of  Trade,”  “Stop  the  Leaks.” 


THE  BIG  DRIVE  123 

* 

Business  was  good  but  he  was  already  looking  ahead  for 
trouble.  In  December,  1888,  he  said: 

If  you  have  had  many  years’  business  experience  you  will  have 
noticed  that  for  a  series  of  years  times  seemed  prosperous.  Pig- 
iron,  real  estate,  and  other  staples  advanced.  Then,  after  a  certain 
period,  the  highest  notch  in  prices  was  reached  and  the  decline  in 
prices  commenced,  and  all  business  was  on  the  down  grade  for  a 
certain  number  of  years.  We  don’t  mean  to  say  that  during  a  certain 
period  all  business  men  made  money,  and  during  a  following  period 
all  business  men  lost  money,  but  that  it  was  much  easier  to  make 
money  during  the  first  period  than  during  the  latter  period.  Buckle, 
in  his  introduction  to  the  “History  of  Civilization,”  tried  to  prove  all 
events  moved  in  cycles;  that  knowing  the  number  of  suicides  in  the 
world  during  each  of  the  past  three  hundred  years,  he  could  arrange 
a  table  by  which  he  could  tell  how  many  suicides  would  occur  each 
year  during  the  next  three  hundred  years.  On  this  same  principle 
that  history  repeats  itself,  Benner  has  founded  his  prophecies  for 
business  men.  We  know  he  has  prophesied  correctly  for  the  past 
fourteen  years,  and  we  propose  to  be  influenced  by  them  in  the  future. 
We  are  all  in  excellent  shape  to  get  our  share  of  the  boom.  Let  us  not 
wait  three  years  to  see  if  he  is  correct,  but  let  us  put  forth  every 
possible  energy  and  commence  now,  so  that  when  the  cycle  of  low 
prices  sets  in  at  the  end  of  ’91  we  will  not  be  left  stranded  on  the  shores 
of  poverty. 

At  the  last  convention  it  was  thought  that  orders  for  registers 
would  increase  to  thirty  daily.  So  confident  were  all  the  representa¬ 
tives  of  accomplishing  this  result  that  the  factory,  at  large  expense 
was  prepared  to  meet  such  a  demand. 

A  large  amount  of  new  machinery,  amounting  to  nearly  thirty 
five  thousand  dollars,  was  bought.  Brass  foundry  and  carpenter  shop 
were  built,  all  unnecessary  material  stored  away,  space  economized, 
and  new  men  trained  in  the  factory  and  offices  to  take  care  of  the 
increased  business. 

Instead  of  thirty  orders  daily  we  are  receiving  on  an  average 
about  seventeen  orders  daily.  We  turned  off  part  of  our  force  and 
still  have  accumulated  over  three  hundred  registers.  What  shall  we 
do?  Stop  the  factory?  Cut  down  our  force,  or  will  you  come  to  the 


124 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


rescue?  The  crisis  has  come.  We  have  never  appealed  to  you  in 
vain,  we  will  not  this  time — now  for  it.  Let  each  man  bend  to  his 
work  as  he  has  never  done  before  and  send  us  in  more  orders  than 
ever. 

At  every  convention  he  had  been  asking  the  agents  to 
give  their  experiences — to  tell  what  objections  prospects 
made  to  purchasing  registers.  And  Mr.  Crane’s  system 
of  never  trying  to  sell  a  prospect  in  his  own  place  of  busi¬ 
ness  was  continually  preached.  The  Crane  method  was 
to  call  upon  a  merchant  and,  after  sizing  up  the  store,  to 
interest  him  in  a  plan  to  save  money.  Mr.  Crane  carried 
nothing  excepting  some  pieces  of  sales  literature  hidden 
away  in  his  pocket.  He  called  this  visit  his  “approach” 
and  it  was  designed  solely  to  get  the  merchant  over  to  the 
hotel  or  show  rooms  for  a  demonstration.  Mr.  Crane 
always  considered  it  one  half  of  the  transaction.  Actually 
making  the  sale  was  the  other  half.  The  big  point  that 
he  urged  upon  all  the  salesmen  was  never  to  hesitate  in 
answering  a  question.  It  became  one  of  the  mottoes  of 
the  company:  “If  you  hesitate,  you’re  lost.” 

But  there  were  some  questions  that  no  agent  could 
answer,  and  for  these  Mr.  Crane  devised  a  stock  answer, 
which  has  ever  since  remained  in  the  instructions  of  the 
company.  If  the  merchant  asked  Mr.  Crane  a  question 
he  could  not  answer  off-hand,  he  invariably  replied: 

“  Why,  that’s  just  the  very  reason  you  should  have  one.” 

The  prospect  was  fairly  certain  to  ask: 

“Why?” 

All  of  which  not  only  gave  Mr.  Crane  an  opportunity 
to  think  up  an  answer  but  cleverly  shifted  his  position  from 
the  defence  to  the  offence. 

All  the  agents  were  expected  to  know  the  primer.  Very 
few  of  them  did  know  it,  but  business  in  1891  and  1892  was 


THE  BIG  DRIVE 


125 


so  good  that  Mr.  Patterson  did  not  have  time  to  follow 
them  up.  The  company  sold  fifteen  thousand  registers 
in  1892  as  against  five  hundred  registers  in  1885.  Those 
who  did  learn  the  primer  profited.  In  practically  every 
case  where  an  agent  memorized  the  sales  talk  and  did 
exactly  what  the  company  told  him  to  do,  he  at  least 
doubled  and  often  tripled  his  sales.  The  primer  was  a 
proved  success,  but  as  yet  the  company,  principally  be¬ 
cause  of  the  large  amount  of  business  coming  in,  only 
requested  the  salesmen  to  use  it,  they  did  not  insist  upon 
its  use.  Mr.  Patterson  did  not  want  to  antagonize  the 
salesmen  as  long  as  they  were  producing. 

The  objections  made  by  prospects  and  the  arguments 
which  the  salesmen  had  used  to  overcome  them  had  been 
recorded  in  the  minutes  of  the  various  conventions  and 
printed  in  The  N.  C.  R.  but  they  had  not  been  gathered 
together  in  the  covers  of  one  book.  The  officers  of  the 
company  decided  that  these  questions  and  answers  ought 
to  be  brought  together  in  a  manual  so  that  no  salesman 
would  have  to  depend  upon  his  own  ingenuity  to  make  a 
suitable  reply.  They  sent  out  questionnaires  to  the  sales¬ 
men,  asking:  “What  do  you  say  to  a  prospect  when  he 
states  that  he  does  not  need  a  cash  register?  What  reply 
do  you  make  to  the  objection  that  the  registers  are  high 
priced?”  And  so  on. 

To  Mr.  Gibbs  fell  the  chief  labour  of  compiling  the 
“Manual,”  and  this  is  what  he  has  to  say  about  it: 

“The  primer  told  the  salesman  what  to  do  during  the 
demonstration.  The  manual  prepared  him  for  the  in¬ 
terview,  gave  him  valuable  advice  on  his  attitude  toward 
prospects  and  customers,  and  furnished  him  with  hundreds 
of  arguments  to  use  in  demonstrating  the  product  or  over¬ 
coming  objections. 


126 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“It  was  divided  into  four  main  parts,  namely,  Sales¬ 
manship,  Approach,  Demonstration,  and  Closing  Argu¬ 
ments. 

“Salesmanship  dealt  with  such  subjects  as  self-respect, 
knowledge,  enthusiasm,  system,  reasons  why  some  sales¬ 
men  fail,  how  to  cultivate  a  territory,  working  a  field 
closely,  door-to-door  canvass,  samples,  advertising  matter 
and  how  to  use  it,  how  to  fit  up  a  hotel  room,  equipment 
of  office  salesrooms,  dignity  and  poise,  personal  appear¬ 
ance,  etc.  Much  of  the  material  for  this  division  was 
secured  at  the  salesmen’s  meetings  we  held  in  different 
sections  of  the  country,  as  it  was  our  rule  to  make  com¬ 
plete  stenographic  reports  at  these  meetings.  The  ma¬ 
terial  thus  secured  was  sent  back  to  the  factory  for 
analysis  and  distribution  to  the  different  divisions  of 
the  business. 

“The  second  division  of  the  book  was  devoted  to  Ap¬ 
proach.  A  salesman  was  told  how  to  introduce  himself, 
what  to  do  and  say  at  first  interviews,  how  to  handle  him¬ 
self  at  critical  moments,  things  to  say  to  a  storekeeper  to 
get  his  attention;  and  last  but  not  least,  this  division  con¬ 
tained  that  big  feature  which  has  been  so  widely  copied 
by  other  concerns:  objections  and  the  proper  answers  to 
make  to  them.  It  is  easy  to  see  what  a  valuable  feature 
this  was — to  appreciate  what  it  meant  to  new  men  when 
they  had  this  array  of  arguments  used  by  the  crack  sales¬ 
men  of  the  country  at  their  command.  And  this  book, 
mind  you,  was  compiled  back  in  the  nineties,  long  before 
we  had  the  elaborate  sales-making  plans  of  the  present 
day. 

“To  give  an  idea  of  objections  answered  in  the  manual, 
I  quote  the  following: 

“‘I  don’t  need  one  in  my  business.’ 


THE  BIG  DRIVE 


127 


“‘Times  are  too  hard.’ 

“‘I  cannot  spare  the  money.’ 

“‘My  present  system  is  satisfactory.’ 

“‘I  promised  my  wife  not  to  buy  any  unnecessary 
article.’ 

“‘It  is  not  suited  to  my  business.’ 

“‘Your  company  makes  too  great  a  profit.’ 

“The  third  heading,  that  of  demonstration,  contained 
advice  to  the  salesman  on  his  mental  and  physical  equip¬ 
ment,  the  correct  method  of  showing  the  various  models, 
the  proper  way  of  receiving  a  caller,  the  importance  of 
winning  the  confidence  and  respect  of  clerks,  and  such 
other  information  as  would  help  a  salesman  in  his  contact 
with  prospective  buyers. 

“Take  one  of  the  items,  that  of  handling  a  prospect. 
Here  are  a  few  paragraphs  selected  from  dozens  on  the 
same  topic: 

“‘Learn  to  size  your  man,  his  peculiarities  and  mood. 
All  men  like  honesty,  politeness,  and  earnestness.  All 
men  admire  persistence. 

“‘Nine  times  out  of  ten  you  can  bank  on  facts  to  fetch 
your  men.  Make  them  clear  as  glass;  strong  and  few. 
Don’t  bewilder  a  man  with  a  mass  of  trifling  arguments. 
Tie  to  a  few  important  points,  drive  them  in  and  clinch 
them.  But  tell  him  what  he  wants  to  know.  If  a  trifle 
will  close  him,  it’s  no  trifle. 

“‘A  few  men  can  be  driven;  the  majority  must  be  led.’ 

“The  fourth  division,  closing  arguments,  applied  to 
getting  the  order  signed.  The  whole  art  of  salesmanship 
might  be  summed  up  in  those  four  words:  getting  the 
order  signed.  A  man’s  approach  may  be  perfect,  his 
demonstration  clear  and  well  made,  but  if  he  cannot  put 
a  climax  upon  the  presentation  of  his  case  by  bringing  up 


128 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


good  closing  arguments  his  efforts  have  been  useless,  his 
time  lost.  The  manual  says: 

“‘That  critical  time,  when  a  prospect  is  ready  to  sign, 
is  an  unknown  quantity.  It  can  only  be  learned  from 
experience.  There  is  always  a  time  when  a  man  will  sign. 
The  successful  salesman  is  the  one  who  knows  when  to 
present  the  order  for  signature.  The  introduction  of  the 
order  to  the  prospect’s  sight  is,  perhaps,  a  critical  moment. 
Good  judgment  and  taste  on  the  part  of  a  salesman  are 
necessary  in  presenting  an  order  form  to  a  probable  pur¬ 
chaser.  If  the  right  moment  is  chosen,  when  he  is  in  the 
proper  mood,  he  does  not  hesitate  to  sign  it.  A  bright 
salesman  will  learn  when  the  proper  time  comes,  and  pre¬ 
sent  the  order  for  signature.’ 

“Here  are  ten  of  the  Don’ts: 

“‘1.  Don’t  fail  to  seat  the  prospect  properly. 

“  ‘  2.  Don’t  point  your  finger  or  pencil  at  him. 

“‘3.  Don’t  sit  awkwardly  on  your  chair. 

“‘4.  Don’t  have  a  calendar  on  the  walls.  It  may 
remind  him  of  an  appointment  or  a  note  falling  due. 

“‘5.  Don’t  put  your  feet  on  his  chair. 

“‘6.  Don’t  smoke. 

“‘7.  Don’t  slap  him  on  the  knee  or  poke  him  with 
your  finger. 

“‘8.  Don’t  chew  gum  or  tobacco. 

“‘9.  Don’t  tell  funny  stories. 

“  ‘  10.  Don’t  talk  fast — go  easy  and  see  that  the  prospect 
understands  what  you  say  and  do,  etc.,  etc.” 

“These  paragraphs  could  be  copied  by  all  manufac¬ 
turers  whose  goods  are  sold  by  personal  solicitation: 

“  ‘  Things  to  remember . 

“  ‘Remember  that  you  explain  the  register  to  customers 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  their  orders.  The  part  of  a 


THE  BIG  DRIVE  129 

salesman  is  to  do  and  say  that  which  will  bring  about  this 
end. 

“‘Do  not  intrude  your  personality  on  the  notice  of  the 
prospect,  but  try  to  make  him  forget  you  and  become 
absorbed  in  studying  the  register.  To  do  this  you  must 
forget  yourself. 

“‘You  must  interest  the  prospect  in  the  register  and 
what  it  will  do  for  him,  or  he  will  not  buy  it.  You  must 
get  him  interested  at  the  start,  and  hold  and  deepen  that 
interest  until  you  are  through  with  him.  Watch  him 
carefully  while  you  are  talking,  and  avoid  long  pauses. 

“‘The  surest  way  for  a  salesman  to  arouse  and  keep  up 
the  interest  of  the  prospect  is  to  have  a  genuine  interest  in 
it  himself.  No  matter  how  many  times  he  has  gone  over 
the  same  ground,  the  salesman  must  not  let  the  demon¬ 
stration  become  an  old  story  and  so  recite  in  a  half-hearted, 
humdrum  manner.  Always  demonstrate  as  if  the  goods 
were  as  new  and  wonderful  to  you  as  they  are  to  your 
listener.  Make  every  demonstration  enthusiastic  and 
fresh.  This  can  be  done,  but  it  will  require  you  to  be 
always  at  your  best  and  full  of  genuine  love  for  your 
work.’  ” 

Mr.  Patterson,  with  the  primer  and  manual  in  hand, 
began  to  go  further  into  the  conduct  of  the  salesmen.  It 
was  his  nature  to  prescribe  for  his  business  and  for  those 
about  him  in  every  detail.  He  wanted  all  his  salesmen 
and  executives  to  be  well  dressed.  In  later  years,  when 
money  was  freer,  he  had  a  way  of  rounding  up  the  men  in 
the  offices  and  sending  them  to  New  York  “to  get  the 
hayseed  off  them.”  He  would  send  men  with  orders  to 
tailors  for  several  suits  of  clothing;  he  bought  travelling 
bags  and  neckties  by  the  dozen.  If  a  man  were  not  shaved 
he  would  present  him  with  a  razor.  Down  at  the  Waldorf- 


130 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Astoria  in  New  York  he  one  day  decided  that  the  men  did 
not  dress  better  because  they  did  not  know  how  to  dress; 
he  sent  for  the  head  valet  and  had  him  supervise  the  prep¬ 
aration  of  a  book  showing  what  kind  of  clothing  a  man 
should  wear  upon  every  occasion. 

He  believed  that  everything  which  might  be  worked  out 
and  set  down  on  paper  ought  to  be  so  worked  out  and 
disposed  of  for  all  time.  He  had  lists  of  his  own  clothing 
drawn  up  for  trips  of  various  durations  and  for  the  various 
seasons.  His  man,  when  packing,  simply  took  the  proper 
list  and  followed  it.  The  dinners  that  he  gave  were  also 
reduced  to  schedule;  the  social  affairs  of  the  N.  C.  R. 
were  likewise  regulated.  The  company  decorations,  the 
escort,  the  luncheon  or  dinner,  the  trips — all  were  put 
down  in  schedules  and  every  man  knew  what  he  was  to 
do  or  provide.  Mr.  Patterson  could  have  the  N.  C.  R. 
equipped  for  any  sort  of  convention  or  reception  on  an 
hour’s  notice  and  without  the  slightest  confusion. 

As  far  back  as  1892  I  find  him  laying  plans  for  publish¬ 
ing  a  book  for  travelling  salesmen  so  that  they  would  be 
properly  equipped  for  their  travels.  In  The  N.  C .  R. 
he  wrote  this,  which  would  be  useful  for  any  traveller: 

It  is  proposed  to  give  the  travelling  salesmen  a  memorandum  book 
more  elaborate  than  our  “Things  To  Do  To-day”  book.  Among  the 
things  which  it  would  contain  would  be  a  list  headed:  “Travellers’ 
Reminder”:  Have  I  packed  my:  Coat,  Waistcoat,  Trousers,  Over¬ 
coat,  Socks,  Slippers,  Shoes,  Overshoes,  Dressing-gown,  Shirts,  Under¬ 
shirts,  Nightshirts,  Drawers,  Suspenders,  Collars,  Cuffs,  Neckties, 
Handkerchiefs,  Gloves,  Comb,  Hairbrush,  Tooth-brush,  Keys, 
Photographs,  Addresses,  Circulars  or  Sample  Books,  Postage-stamps, 
Books,  Surgical  Appliances,  Flask,  Lunch,  Agents’  List,  Nail-brush, 
Clothes-brush,  Blacking-brush,  Looking-glass,  Razor,  Sponge,  Towels, 
Soap,  Perfumery,  Court-Plaster,  Pins  and  Needles,  Thread,  Buttons', 
etc.,  Jewellery,  Eye-glasses,  Watch,  Knife,  Scissors,  Matches,  Tooth- 


THE  BIG  DRIVE 


131 


picks.  Hat,  Cane,  Umbrella,  Memorandum,  Visiting  Cards,  Letters 
of  Introduction,  Pens  and  Pencils,  Paper  and  Envelopes,  Pistols, 
Medicines,  Cigars,  Drinking  Cup,  Glycerine,  Guides,  and  Time-tables. 

Any  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  above  list  would  be  received  with 
thanks. 

The  “Things  To  Do  To-day”  books  that  he  refers  to 
were  one  of  his  earliest  suggestions  and  one  that  he  carried 
through  to  the  end  of  his  life  and  for  every  executive  of 
the  company.  He  started  the  habit  back  in  the  coal  days 
of  carrying  in  his  vest  pocket  a  little  two-by-three-inch 
book  in  which  he  had  his  schedule  for  the  day  and  in  which 
he  also  jotted  down  every  fact  which  he  thought  would  be 
of  use  in  the  company.  Later,  in  England,  he  found  just 
the  sort  of  red  leather  book  that  he  liked  and  he  every 
year  not  only  ordered  a  supply  for  himself — for  he  would 
use  two  or  three  a  month — but  also  one  for  each  executive 
of  the  company. 

He  considered  that  every  man  should  have  his  day 
planned  in  advance  and  also  have  some  means  always 
at  hand  for  making  notes.  In  his  own  case  he  had  what 
he  was  to  do  during  a  day  typed  on  a  card  to  fit  his 
wallet  and  he  used  the  little  books  entirely  for  notes,  and 
since  he  liked  only  soft  pencils  and  always  wrote  in  a  large 
hand  he  could  rarely  get  more  than  one  note  on  a  page. 
Like  everything  else  that  he  did,  the  matter  of  notes  was 
reduced  to  a  system. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Patterson  was  an 
almost  uncannily  skilled  adapter  rather  than  an  originator ; 
the  line  between  adapting  and  originating  is  hard  to  draw 
for  he  got  suggestions  from  quarters  where  no  other  human 
being  would  have  found  them  and  then  turned  them  in 
such  fashion  that  no  one  else  would  have  recognized  the 
suggestion. 


132 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


He  was  never  without  a  notebook  or  a  pad.  Beside 
his  bed  he  had  a  reading  light,  a  pad,  and  a  pencil,  and  it 
was  no  infrequent  thing  for  him  to  make  twenty  or  thirty 
notes  during  the  night.  The  pad  was  of  course  standard¬ 
ized  and  of  a  size  so  that  the  sheet  would  fit  conveniently 
into  his  side  coat  pocket.  In  the  morning  he  would  gather 
up  the  notes  and  either  hand  them  to  his  secretary  to  be 
transcribed  and  transmitted  to  the  proper  person,  or,  if 
they  were  long,  he  would  dictate  them  himself.  He  pre¬ 
ferred  to  write  these  notes  with  a  red  pencil — but  not  until 
his  later  life  did  he  find  a  red  pencil  of  exactly  the  colour 
and  softness  to  suit  him.  He  immediately  ordered  a 
dozen  gross  of  these  pencils — he  wanted  enough  of  them 
to  last  him  “  the  rest  of  his  life.  ”  Thereafter  all  his  notes 
were  in  red. 

Most  of  the  ideas  on  which  the  N.  C.  R.  was  built  came 
by  way  of  the  little  red  book  or  the  memorandum  pad  by 
the  bedside.  Mr.  Patterson  once  drew  up  a  chart  which  he 
called  “The  Itinerary  of  an  N.  C.  R.  Idea”  and  which 
explains  the  usual  route: 

“1.  Red  book  in  vest  pocket. 

“2.  Paper  pad  at  bedside. 

“3.  To  bulletin  pedestal  in  house  or  in  hotel  when 
away  from  home. 

“4.  To  pedestal  in  office. 

“5.  To  Committee  of  15  and  others  called  in  executive 
committee  room.  v 

“6.  All  or  part  of  the  committee  to  adjourn  to  any  part 
of  the  factory. 

“7.  Advisory  board. 

“8.  Meeting  in  schoolhouse. 

“9.  Advertising  department  for  publication. 

“10.  General  publicity  department.” 


THE  BIG  DRIVE 


133 


Benner — whose  prophecies  Mr.  Patterson  always  fol¬ 
lowed — predicted  a  panic  for  1893  and  in  the  fall  of  1892, 
in  spite  of  the  great  business  the  company  was  doing,  Mr. 
Patterson  began  to  talk  panic.  He  made  a  trip  to  Boston 
to  see  his  bankers;  he  looked  about  the  country  a  good 
deal  and  he  was  convinced  that  Benner  was  right.  No 
one  in  Dayton  took  him  seriously.  They  just  said: 
“John  Patterson  is  raving  again.”  But  he  was  convinced 
that  he  was  right.  He  said  that  the  whole  company 
would  have  to  find  a  way  to  bridge  the  hard  times  that 
were  coming  and  the  only  way  was  to  intensify  the  sales 
methods.  He  kept  talking  about  getting  better  selling 
methods.  He  decided  that  the  agents  were  not  selling  as 
much  as  they  could.  More  particularly  he  thought  that 
they  were  not  using  the  primer  and  the  other  company 
helps,  and  in  the  spring  of  1893  he  decided  to  see  for  him¬ 
self  what  the  agents  were  doing. 

That  trip  is  memorable,  for  from  it  dates  the  real  use 
of  the  sales  methods  of  the  N.  C.  R.  and  when  the  panic 
was  over  the  N.  C.  R.  was  a  real  company.  No  sales 
force  in  the  world  has  ever  received  the  thorough  overhaul¬ 
ing  that  Mr.  Patterson  gave  his  people  in  this  trip  in 
which  he  visited  fifty  towns  in  fifty-one  days.  He  was 
accompanied  by  Mr.  Gibbs  who  says: 

“This  first  trip  that  I  made  with  Mr.  Patterson  was  a 
very  trying  one.  We  had  nothing  whatever  to  guide  us; 
we  scarcely  knew  what  we  were  going  to  do  when  we 
started  out  from  the  factory.  Our  programme,  in  fact, 
was  made  up  as  we  went  along. 

“In  order  to  expedite  matters  and  do  the  greatest 
amount  of  work  in  the  shortest  possible  time,  we  notified 
the  agents  well  in  advance  as  to  the  dates  we  would  arrive 
in  the  various  territories,  so  that  they  might  arrange  to 


134 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


have  the  men  from  outlying  districts  come  in  to  the  main 
cities.  This  was  done  to  economize  our  own  time.  It 
was  just  as  easy  to  talk  to  twenty-five  men  as  to  talk  to 
three  or  four;  besides,  we  realized  it  was  better  for  one 
man  to  get  the  experience  of  fifteen  others  rather  than  to 
sit  in  a  meeting  attended  by  only  four  or  five. 

“In  every  city  of  any  importance  we  held  a  convention 
of  the  agents  and  examined  each  man  on  his  selling  meth¬ 
ods,  his  style  of  approaching  a  storekeeper,  his  ways  of 
closing  sales,  his  personal  appearance,  his  attitude  toward 
the  prospect,  and  we  also  put  in  considerable  time  inspect¬ 
ing  the  showrooms  and  finding  out  how  registers  were 
exhibited  and  sales  made.  Part  of  the  time  Mr.  Patterson 
acted  as  storekeeper  and  the  balance  of  the  time  I  served 
in  this  capacity.” 

Few  of  the  agents  ever  forgot  those  visits.  Mr.  Patter¬ 
son  had  his  fighting  clothes  on.  He  wanted  the  primer 
used.  He  employed  his  every  device  of  sarcasm  to  see 
that  it  was  used.  And  he  had  a  great  fund  of  sarcasm  to 
draw  on.  Here  is  Joseph  H.  Crane’s  report  of  a  visit: 

J.  H.  P.  (aside).  “You  are  in  your  office.  I  am  a 
druggist.  My  place  of  business  is  four  blocks  up  the 
street.  I  am  coming  into  your  office,  and  I  want  you  to 
explain  the  machine  to  me.” 

J.  H.  P.  “Good  morning,  Mr.  Rennie.  My  name  is 
Mr.  Patterson.  I  have  a  drug  store.  I  want  to  look  at 
your  registers.” 

R.  “I  want  to  explain  this  machine  to  you.  This 
register  is  placed  in  the  most  conspicuous  part  of  your 
store.” 

J.  H.  P.  “It  is  not.  You  have  spoken  one  sentence 
and  made  two  mis-statements.  You  have  said  it  is  placed 
in  my  store.  It  isn’t,  it  is  in  your  office.” 


THE  FIRST  AGENTS’  TRAINING  CLASS 
Established  by  John  H.  Patterson  in  April,  1894,  in  a  little  cottage  near  the  N.  C.  R.  Factory 


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THE  BIG  DRIVE 


135 


R.  “Well,  I  meant  it  would  be.” 

J.  H.  P.  “I  don’t  know  what  you  mean,  I  only  know 
what  you  said.  If  I  buy  that  machine  I  am  not  going  to 
hang  it  from  the  ceiling;  that  is  the  most  conspicuous  part 
of  my  store.” 

Every  agent  who  did  not  know  the  primer  regretted, 
after  Mr.  Patterson’s  visit,  that  he  had  been  born.  In 
Rochester,  impersonating  a  druggist,  the  agent  took  him 
into  the  partitioned  room  and  started  the  demonstration 
with: 

“Mr.  Patterson,  when  you  sell  something,  this  tablet 
jumps  up  and  tells  you  what  you  bought.” 

Mr.  Patterson  waited  for  no  more.  He  came  running 
out  of  the  booth,  yelling:  “Help!  Help!”  at  the  top  of  his 
voice.  The  agent  rushed  up  to  him. 

“Are  you  ill,  Mr.  Patterson?” 

“No,  I’m  all  right,  but  you  scared  the  life  out  of  the 
druggist.  He  thought  he  was  locked  up  with  a  crazy 
man — telling  him  about  a  tablet  jumping  up  and  talking.” 

He  told  that  agent  he  would  be  back  to  examine  him  on 
the  primer  in  sixty  days.  In  Brooklyn  he  found  an  agent 
who  did  know  the  primer.  He  knew  every  word  of  it,  but 
he  stood  off  and  declaimed  it  at  the  top  of  his  voice.  Mr. 
Patterson  sent  him  back  to  the  factory  to  learn  how  to  say 
it.  In  a  demonstration  booth  in  Philadelphia  the  agent 
had  hung  a  beautiful  calendar.  One  of  the  rules  of  the 
company  was  that  nothing  but  the  register  should  be  in 
the  room.  The  agent  went  through  with  his  talk  in  good 
shape  but  as  he  came  to  critical  points — points  of  great 
emphasis — Mr.  Patterson  would  make  some  innocent 
remark  like,  “My,  what  a  beautiful  gown,”  or  “My, 
that’s  a  nice  calendar.”  When  the  agent  came  to  the 
point  where  he  handed  over  the  order  blank  for  signature, 


136 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Mr.  Patterson  got  out  his  own  notebook  and,  walking  close 
to  the  calendar,  took  careful  note  of  the  lithographer’s 
name! 

A  most  particular  part  of  the  demonstration  was  the 
use  of  real  money;  the  agent  was  expected  to  have  exactly 
$7.16,  which  was  the  amount  that  would  make  the  change 
for  each  demonstration.  The  company  provided  a  special 
pocketbook  to  carry  just  this  amount  in  the  exact  denomi¬ 
nations.  In  Newark,  the  agent  said: 

“I’ll  tell  you  right  now,  Mr.  Patterson,  I  don’t  use  the 
primer.  Selling  is  all  personality.  The  primer  is  all 
right  for  Joe  Crane  but  I’ve  been  selling  too  long  to  change 
my  methods.  I’m  not  a  parrot.” 

“Fine,”  answered  Mr.  Patterson.  “I  am  glad  to  hear 
that  you  have  a  better  method.  That  is  what  we  are 
always  looking  for — something  better.” 

The  agent  went  through  his  demonstration  rather 
crudely  and  he  did  not  use  cash.  When  it  was  all  over, 
Mr.  Patterson  asked: 

“That  is  certainly  fine.  You  have  a  fine  method. 
There  is  just  one  thing  I  want  to  know:  where  do  you 
put  the  money  in  this  thing?” 


CHAPTER  IX 


BRIDGING  THE  PANIC  OF  1893 

NO  SALES  force,  no  organization  of  any  kind  has 
ever  been  put  through  such  a  course  of  sprouts 
as  followed  John  H.  Patterson’s  tour  of  the 
N.  C.  R.  agencies  in  1893  and  his  observations  at  the 
company’s  exhibit  at  the  World’s  Fair  in  Chicago.  He 
was  determined  to  beat  the  panic  which  he  saw  on  the 
way.  Nothing  put  John  Patterson  into  so  fine  a  fettle 
as  a  hard  job  ahead.  If  there  was  nothing  really  to  do, 
he  usually  stirred  up  petty  things  but  when  a  big  job  was 
on,  he  was  action  every  minute. 

Cash-register  salesmen  have  for  many  years  had  the 
reputation  of  being  uncannily  resourceful  and  tireless; 
they  were  not  always  that  way,  nor  did  they  grow  that 
way.  It  was  Mr.  Patterson  who  made  them  so — and 
he  started  the  making  after  this  very  trip.  For  the  first 
time  he  really  saw  what  the  agents  were  doing — he 
had  never  before  inspected  the  front-line  trenches.  He 
had  stayed  at  headquarters.  But  after  that  trip  no 
executive  of  the  company  was  ever  permitted  long  to 
remain  at  headquarters;  they  were  supposed  to  be  out  on 
the  road  holding  conventions  of  salesmen  and  finding  out 
why  registers  were  being  sold  or  why  they  were  not  being 
sold. 

Mr.  Patterson  was  the  originator  of  what  might  be 
called  4 4 intensive  supervision”;  he  held  that  to  be  a  neces¬ 
sary  part  of  intensive  selling.  Churches  find  it  necessary 

137 


138 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


to  hold  “missions”  or  “revival”  meetings  every  so  often. 
That  is  exactly  the  idea  Mr.  Patterson  took  into  the  man¬ 
agement  of  the  sales  force.  He  called  them  in  for  con¬ 
ventions  and  he  went  out  and  held  conventions  among 
them.  After  this  trip  no  N.  C.  R.  salesman  ever  went 
stale  through  lack  of  encouragement.  Someone  was  al¬ 
ways  around  to  shake  his  hand  for  doing  good  work — or 
to  shake  him  up  for  not  doing  good  work. 

On  this  trip  and  after  it  Mr.  Patterson  used  his  every 
art  to  put  the  selling  force  on  its  toes — one  moment  he 
would  be  praising  extravagantly — and  he  could  praise 
without  limit;  the  next  moment  he  would  be  bringing  into 
play  all  of  the  biting  sarcasm  for  which  he  was  famous. 
The  comments  he  made  on  this  trip  are  useful  to  any  one, 
for  the  conditions  he  found  were  not  simply  N.  C.  R.  con¬ 
ditions — they  were  human  conditions;  it  was  ordinary, 
passive  human  nature  which  Mr.  Patterson  saw,  and  he 
started  in  to  make  extraordinary,  active  human  nature 
out  of  it.  Which  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  he 
started  in  to  exert  the  full  power  of  leadership.  Here  are 
some  of  the  comments : 

“I  have  been  surprised  to  find  how  many  salesmen  and 
sales  agents  were  sick  just  the  day  I  happened  to  be 
there.  It  was  the  most  singular  occurrence  that  they 
should  have  been  sick  the  night  before  or  had  been  up 
until  12:00  or  1:00  o’clock,  trying  to  sell  machines  and 
that  that  was  the  only  morning  they  had  been  late  for 
weeks  past.  Now  this  agent  said  the  reason  he  lived  in 
a  neighbouring  city,  an  hour’s  ride  from  his  territory,  was 
that  he  had  some  friends  in  that  city  that  he  wanted  to 
meet  in  the  evening.  This  agent  was  the  worst  of  all. 

“I  had  examined  and  ascertained  that  his  territory 
consisted  of  a  population  of  200,000.  He  had  his  office 


BRIDGING  THE  PANIC  OF  1893 


139 


run  by  an  assistant  at  $75.00  per  month.  We  cut  down 
his  territory  one  half,  and  placed  him  on  trial  for  the 
next  few  weeks.  He  had  no  system  of  selling;  admitted 
that  the  primer  was  a  good  thing,  but  he  was  too  lazy  to 
learn  it.  He  never  spent  any  time  in  his  territory  in  the 
evening. 

“We  told  him  that  he  was  a  back  number.  He  had 
not  time  to  shave  every  day;  he  could  not  afford  to  wear 
clean  linen  every  day;  he  had  no  money  to  buy  a  safety 
razor  outfit;  his  beard  looked  like  a  music  box  cylinder, 
but  he  was  spending  $2.00  a  day  for  cigars.  After  we  had 
proven  these  things  to  him,  he  still  argued  that  he  was 
right. 

“In  one  of  our  most  prominent  offices  the  office  sales¬ 
man  took  us  into  a  room  to  demonstrate  a  machine;  and, 
when  he  came  to  the  distribution  of  supplies,  he  found  he 
had  no  ‘Paid  Out5  slips.  He  censured  the  office  boy,  and 
said: 

“T  suppose  you  think  it  is  queer  that  the  proper  sta¬ 
tionery  is  not  in  the  drawer  of  this  register,  but  I  have  in¬ 
structed  this  boy  always  to  keep  it  well  supplied. 9 

“I  have  found  nothing  but  excuses  on  this  trip — ex¬ 
cuses  for  not  learning  the  primer,  excuses  for  not  com¬ 
mitting  the  Book  of  Arguments,  excuses  for  not  giving 
guaranteed  territory,  excuses  for  not  decorating  the  show 
windows  and  offices,  excuses  for  not  keeping  the  wagons 
in  good  shape,  excuses  for  not  having  the  men  come  to 
the  office  early  in  the  morning,  excuses  for  not  sending 
out  advertising  matter,  excuses  for  smoking  in  the  offices, 
excuses  for  not  getting  orders,  excuses  for  the  state  of  the 
weather,  excuses  if  it  is  too  hot,  excuses  if  it  is  too  dry; 
nothing  but  excuses.  It  seems  to  me  that  some  of  the 
sales  agents  are  continually  trying  to  find  excuses  for 


140 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


their  work,  instead  of  using  their  energies  to  increase  the 
business.  It  is  remarkable  what  astonishing  excuses  a 
sales  agent  can  get  up  for  not  attending  to  his  work.  If 
there  were  less  excuses  and  more  hustling,  our  factory 
would  have  to  run  overtime. 

“A  user  of  our  machines  called  my  attention,  on  this 
trip,  to  the  fact  that  one  of  our  agents  looked  more  like 
a  sporting  man  than  a  man  capable  of  selling  cash  regis¬ 
ters.  I  asked  him  what  made  him  look  so  and  he  said 
it  was  the  white  scarf  and  large  diamond  pin  in  his  shirt- 
front. 

“I  find,  upon  examination,  that  the  sales  agents  and 
salesmen  are  greatly  hindered  in  their  results  from  their 
bad  habits.  I  mean  too  much  smoking,  too  much  drink¬ 
ing,  and  lack  of  every-day  bathing.  We  cannot  afford 
to  have  the  territories  occupied  by  sick  men.  The  health 
of  the  salesmen  we  have  met  has  not  been  first-class,  and 
they  could  not  do  the  work  expected  of  them.  Some 
think  it  is  necessary  to  take  about  five  drinks  of  whiskey 
every  day.  I  know  that  to  stop  smoking  is  a  very  hard 
thing  to  do,  but  to  will  to  stop  it  is  not  sufficient.  Two 
or  three  days  of  rest,  hot  baths,  and  drinking  hot  water, 
are  absolutely  necessary,  and  will  make  the  body  both 
physically  and  mentally  strong.  I  find  the  salesmen  are 
not  neat  in  their  appearance.  They  shave  only  two  or 
three  times  a  week  when  they  should  shave  every  day. 
Their  collars  and  cuffs  are  worn  more  than  once,  their 
shoes  not  blackened,  and  their  shirt  fronts  are  stained 
with  tobacco. 

“If  I  was  ever  convinced  of  one  thing  in  my  life,  I  am 
convinced  that  a  cash-register  office  must  be  on  the  most 
prominent  street  of  a  town,  and  on  the  most  prominent 
side  of  that  street.  Agents  who  have  ground-floor  offices 


BRIDGING  THE  PANIC  OF  1893 


141 


in  prominent  parts  of  the  town  are  reaping  great  results. 
Many  agents  object  to  taking  these  ground-floor  offices 
on  account  of  the  rents  being  so  high  that  they  think  they 
cannot  afford  it,  when  the  facts  show  that  they  would 
sell  machines  enough  to  pay  the  rent  over  and  over  again. 
With  the  window  displays  that  we  have,  the  illuminated 
pictures,  registers  operated  by  electricity,  together  with 
the  many  other  new  devices  which  we  are  getting  out,  to 
have  an  office  on  the  ground  floor  on  the  most  prominent 
street  is  the  best-paying  investment  that  an  agent  can 
make.  Do  not  hide  your  office  on  a  side  street  or  up¬ 
stairs  where  no  one  can  get  at  it.  Have  it  where  it  will 
be  easy  to  get  at;  fix  up  good  window  displays  that  will 
attract  attention;  have  competent  men  to  show  machines 
to  those  who  come  in,  and  you  will  sell  more  machines  in 
your  office  than  you  have  ever  before,  and  not  only  make 
your  rent,  but  a  handsome  profit  besides. 

“Light  and  cleanliness  are  the  two  great  essentials 
to  selling.  A  dark  store  is  never  as  profitable  as  a  light 
one.  People  are  attracted  by  light.  Many  a  store  can 
be  made  light  by  knocking  a  few  more  holes  in  the  wall. 
No  one  has  yet  failed  in  business  because  he  spent  too  much 
money  in  lighting  his  store.  There  never  was  a  man  free 
to  do  as  he  pleased.  You’ve  got  to  do  as  others  want  you, 
or  do  no  business.  The  most  effective  way  to  dress  a 
window  is  to  arrange  a  line  of  goods  designed  after  one 
special  class.  This  is  better  than  resorting  to  too  many 
varied  effects.  Everybody  knows  that  profit  is  the  dif¬ 
ference  between  expenses  and  receipts,  and  yet  fully  one 
half  of  the  business  men  make  more  effort  to  cut  down 
expenses  than  to  increase  their  receipts.” 

He  forgot  nothing: 

“Some  of  the  agents  claimed  that  our  criticism  of  them, 


142 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


on  our  trip,  was  rather  severe.  In  order  to  prove  whether 
their  judgment  was  right  in  this  matter,  we  engaged  an 
elocutionist  for  one  day,  who  knew  nothing  about  cash 
registers,  to  sit  in  the  office  while  the  salesmen  were  ex¬ 
plaining  the  register,  and  then  tell  all  of  us  his  opinion  of 
each  one.  After  a  prominent  sales  agent  had  talked  for 
two  hours  and  a  half,  explaining  the  register,  using  every 
argument  that  he  could,  the  elocutionist  pointed  to  the 
register  and  said,  ‘What  good  is  it?’ 

“The  above  shows  that  our  criticism  was  just;  and  that 
if  a  stranger  after  listening  to  a  sales  agent  for  two  hours 
and  a  half  would  ask  what  the  register  was  good  for, 
surely  our  criticisms  were  well  taken.” 

Most  of  the  criticism  was  constructive — if  there  was 
any  human  material  out  of  which  anything  could  be  made. 
Mr.  Patterson  sought  to  build  up  something  new  out  of 
what  he  had  torn  down.  For  instance: 

“Very  few  agents  appreciate  the  importance  of  saying 
the  proper  things  while  they  are  walking  or  driving  with 
a  P.  P.  from  his  store  to  the  salesroom  or  hotel  room.  Do 
not  talk  about  trifling  subjects;  do  not  talk  about  the 
weather;  do  not  talk  about  the  silver  question,  for,  if  you 
do,  it  will  remind  the  P.  P.  that  times  are  hard;  do  not 
talk  about  baseball  games  or  prizefights;  talk  about  the 
business  on  hand.  Tell  him  about  our  registers  at  the 
World’s  Fair;  point  out  some  of  the  stores,  as  you  go  along, 
where  our  registers  are  in  use;  talk  to  him  so  as  to  pre¬ 
pare  his  mind  for  the  demonstration,  also  to  interest  him 
in  the  cash-register  system.  Do  not  give  him  time  to 
think  about  his  store,  as  he  may  worry  about  leaving  it, 
thinking  his  clerks  will  not  take  care  of  things. 

“Explain  to  the  storekeeper  that  the  cost  of  the  register 
is  not  high;  mention  the  new  improvements  that  we  have 


BRIDGING  THE  PANIC  OF  1893 


143 


put  on  the  machine — the  new  resetting-to-zero  device,  the 
hangers,  the  combination  indicators,  and  the  black  band 
across  the  adding  wheels;  say  that  each  one  of  these  im¬ 
provements  is  worth  a  great  deal  of  money,  but  that  we 
have  not  increased  the  price  of  the  register  on  this  ac¬ 
count;  explain  how  much  easier  it  is  to  read  the  amounts 
shown  on  the  adding  wheels,  and  how  much  quicker  it 
can  be  done;  show  the  advantages  of  the  combination 
indicators;  explain  what  the  hangers  are  for;  show  how 
much  easier  it  is  to  reset  the  adding  wheels  to  ‘zero’; 
explain  that,  if  the  old  register  was  worth  $200,  the  new 
one  with  all  the  improvements  is  worth  $100  more. 

“Nearly  all  salesmen,  in  arguing  on  the  price  of  the 
register,  said  that  it  would  save  a  storekeeper  ten  cents  a 
day,  and  offered  this  as  a  great  inducement  to  purchase 
a  machine.  One  salesman  said:  ‘It  will  save  you  the 
cost  of  a  good  cigar  every  day.’ 

“Now,  such  talk  is  utter  rot.  No  storekeeper  cares 
about  a  saving  of  ten  cents  a  day  on  an  investment  of 
$200.  Besides,  the  ten  cents  in  itself  is  such  a  trifling 
sum  that  it  is  folly  to  suppose  any  one  will  be  influenced 
by  such  a  slight  inducement. 

“Use  the  argument  that  a  register  will  save  from  $3  to 
$5  a  day.  That  will  be  of  interest  to  a  merchant. 

“Some  salesmen  use  arguments  as  weak  as  themselves. 
A  ten-cent  salesman  cannot  sell  cash  registers.” 

He  was  particularly  keen  to  see  that  the  advertising 
matter  of  the  company  was  not  wasted.  The  poorer  sales¬ 
men — the  men  who  sold  in  fits  and  starts — had  small  re¬ 
gard  for  advertising. 

“I  asked  one  sales  agent  what  amount  he  was  expend¬ 
ing  each  month  for  postage,  and,  after  much  pulling,  I 
brought  out  the  fact  that  he  was  expending  the  enormous 


144 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


amount  of  $2.14  per  month.  As  it  took  about  $2  per 
month  for  postage  to  the  factory,  the  extra  fourteen  cents 
must  have  been  for  advertising  matter,  and  this  is  in  a 
city  of  over  130,000  inhabitants — a  prosperous  city,  a 
clean  city,  a  city  full  of  business  stores,  a  city  of  hustlers. 
And  yet  this  agent  complained  to  me  that  business  was 
dull,  and  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  secure  orders. 
A  man  like  that  might  make  a  good  clerk  in  a  dry-goods 
store  but  is  a  pretty  poor  cash-register  salesman. 

“At  one  agent’s  office  I  noticed  a  large  pile  of  ad¬ 
vertising  matter  in  the  windows — ‘  Stop  the  Leaks,  ’  ‘My 
Little  Story,’  ‘Six  Years’  Experience,’  etc. — about  500 
copies  in  all.  When  I  inquired  the  reason  for  doing  this 
he  said:  ‘You  have  no  idea  of  the  attention  that  adver¬ 
tising  matter  attracts.  Why,  one  day  we  had  as  many 
as  twenty  children  in  here  for  copies.  We  have  had  re¬ 
quests  from  children  daily.’ 

“I  told  him  that  distribution  of  this  kind  was  equal  to 
throwing  the  books  in  the  river.  This  office  looked  like 
a  book  store.  In  fact,  the  sales  agent  himself  said  that 
it  was  often  taken  for  one.  We  do  not  want  our  offices 
to  look  like  anything  but  cash-register  offices,  to  attract 
business  men,  not  children.  When  a  sales  agent  prides 
himself  on  the  fact  that  his  office  looks  like  a  stationery 
store  it  is  high  time  to  change  his  show  windows  and  to 
call  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  window  dressing  was 
discussed  at  the  last  convention,  and  that  he  failed  to  give 
it  any  attention. 

“I  asked  one  sales  agent  to  show  me  his  P.  P.  list  for  a 
city  of  over  150,000  inhabitants.  He  said  his  city  sales¬ 
man  had  it.  (Think  of  but  one  salesman  for  150,000 
people!)  Wken  the  salesman  came  in,  I  asked  him  for 
the  list.  He  was  somewhat  afraid  to  produce  it,  or  else 


BRIDGING  THE  PANIC  OF  1893 


145 


was  ashamed.  Out  it  came,  however,  a  little  blank  book, 
containing  about  ninety  or  so  names,  some  of  them  wholly 
illegible,  all  of  them  carelessly  written,  and  many  without 
initials  or  street  numbers.  Thinking  that  there  was  a 
mistake,  and  that  it  was  not  possible  that  that  was  the 
only  list  the  sales  agent  had,  I  turned  to  him  and  asked 
if  that  was  all. 

“‘Yes,’  he  replied,  ‘that’s  all.’ 

“  ‘And  have  you  no  copy  of  it?  ’ 

“‘No,’  he  answered,  ‘that  is  the  only  list.’ 

“Ninety  names  out  of  150,000 — a  little  drop  in  the 
bucket.  One  salesman  in  a  great  big  city  plodding  along 
with  a  little  list  of  ninety  names  It  was  sickening.  It 
was  disheartening.  Here  we  are  pushing,  driving,  hus¬ 
tling,  hammering,  making  suggestions,  paying  out  money, 
doing  everything  to  help  the  business,  and  I  find  things 
like  this  at  almost  every  step.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  we 
were  short  of  orders  the  past  three  months?  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  the  business  doesn’t  grow  as  it  should  grow? 
What  are  such  agents  as  the  above  doing  to  make  it  grow? 
Now  such  things  must  not  exist.  We  cannot  afford  to 
see  our  business  suffer  in  this  way.” 

The  Chicago  World’s  Fair  was  the  first  big  exposition 
in  which  the  N.  C.  It.  exhibited.  A  small  exhibition  had 
been  placed  previously  in  London  but  nothing  on  a  big 
scale  had  been  tried.  Mr.  Patterson  himself  convinced 
the  Fair  Board  that  every  concession  on  the  celebrated 
Midway  should  instal  a  cash  register  and  made  arrange¬ 
ments  for  selling  them.  These  concessions  were  on  the 
commission  basis  and  it  was  not  hard  for  Mr.  Patterson 
to  convince  the  Board  that  if  the  concessionaires  were 
allowed  to  do  their  own  accounting  the  Fair  manage¬ 
ment  would  receive  what  stuck  to  the  rungs  of  the  ladder. 


146 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


So  they  made  it  a  part  of  every  concession  that  a  cash 
register  be  used.  This  of  itself  was  a  great  advertisement 
and  Mr.  Patterson  made  the  most  of  it;  he  showed  pic¬ 
tures  of  Esquimaux,  of  South  Sea  Islanders,  of  the  in¬ 
habitants  of  every  clime  and  nation  ringing  up  on  cash 
registers.  It  was  not  the  sort  of  advertising  to  sell  reg¬ 
isters  but  it  was  the  sort  to  make  every  human  being  in 
the  country  know  what  a  cash  register  was — and  at  that 
time  only  a  few  people  did  know  the  cash  register. 

The  exhibit  itself  was  in  charge  of  R.  T.  Houk,  now 
vice-president  of  the  Mead  Paper  Company.  “  Doc”  Houk 
had  more  than  his  share  of  trouble,  for  every  time  John 
Patterson  visited  the  exhibit  he  tore  it  to  pieces.  He 
visited  it  often,  wandering  around  in  the  crowd  to  hear 
what  the  visitors  had  to  say  and  then  turning  to  ad¬ 
vantage  what  he  found. 

We  noticed  that  the  people  were  not  paying  any 
attention  to  our  registers  that  were  being  operated  by 
power.  We  had  signs,  ‘See  It  Add,’  printed  in  large 
letters  and  placed  over  these.  We  also  posted  on  the 
guard  a  small  slip  with,  the  words,  ‘Cents  Add  Here,’ 
and  in  another  place  a  slip  with  the  words,  ‘Dollars 
Add  Here/  This  drew  large  crowds. 

“We  mentioned  this  in  The  N.  C .  I?.,  and  presumed  that 
every  office  would  take  the  hint  and  do  likewise.  Not 
long  since  I  was  in  an  office  on  the  principal  street  of  a 
city  where  many  were  passing,  but  none  stopped.  I  put 
these  signs  in  the  window,  and  in  a  few  minutes  a  crowd 
had  collected.” 

Not  all  of  the  signs  lasted,  however.  A  favourite  one 
was:  “Come  in  and  See  the  Detail  Adder.”  A  man  and  a 
woman  were  passing  an  agency  window  holding  this  sign. 

“Let’s  go  in  and  see  the  thing,”  suggested  the  man. 


BRIDGING  THE  PANIC  OF  1893 


147 


44  No !”  cried  the  woman.  44  Come,  hurry  away.  I  hate 
snakes!” 

That  was  the  last  of  the  sign! 

The  exhibition  was  attended  by  about  a  dozen  clerks — 
they  were  not  salesmen  but  were  expected  to  tell  visitors 
what  the  machines  did.  Mr.  Patterson  did  not  at  the 
beginning  permit  himself  to  be  known  to  these  clerks. 
He  used  to  wander  in  as  a  stranger  and  have  the  registers 
explained  to  him.  He  got  some  marvellous  explanations. 
At  once  he  made  up  a  list  of  things  a  stranger  ought  to 
know  about  the  registers  and  the  probable  questions  they 
would  ask.  These  he  printed  into  a  booklet  and  started 
a  school  for  the  exhibitors ;  instead  of  each  man  exhibiting 
according  to  his  heart’s  desire  he  had  to  repeat  an  exact 
speech  which  quickly  told  all  the  more  important  facts 
about  the  registers  and  what  they  would  do. 

Out  of  all  this  field  experimenting  came  the  firm  convic¬ 
tion  that  every  salesman  had  to  learn  the  primer  or  get  out. 
Not  otherwise  did  Mr.  Patterson  see  how  the  business 
would  be  forced  through  the  Panic.  He  drew  up  “Five 
Things  a  Salesman  Must  Do.”  He  dropped  sugges¬ 
tions;  he  ordered — for  he  felt  that  he  was  in  the  face  of 
the  enemy.  This  is  what  he  ordered: 

44  There  Are  Five  Things  we  insist  upon  every  sales 
agent  doing.  They  are  the  foundation  principles  of 
success,  and  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  they  be  adopted 
at  once.  Don’t  deceive  yourself  by  thinking  you  can 
get  along  without  them.  You  cannot. 

44  No.  1 — give  guaranteed  territory 

44  Every  salesman  must  be  given  a  certain  territory  and 
receive  credit  for  all  orders  from  that  territory,  whether 
taken  by  him  or  at  the  salesrooms. 


148 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“No.  2 — USE  THE  PRIMER 

“By  this  we  mean,  commit  the  ‘ Primer,’  word  for  word, 
and  have  every  one  of  the  Salesmen  and  office  men  do  so. 
Not  commit  it  partly,  but  commit  it  so  as  to  be  able  to 
repeat  it  exactly  as  it  is  printed. 

“No.  3 - USE  BOOK  OF  ARGUMENTS 

“Have  everyone  familiarize  himself  with  the  argu¬ 
ments  in  the  book,  ‘Arguments  on  the  Price,’  so  as  to 
be  able  to  repeat  them. 

“No.  4 - DECORATE  WINDOWS  AND  OFFICES 

“Use  the  illuminated  pictures,  the  registers  operating 
by  electricity,  and  other  novel  devices  to  attract  passers- 

by. 

“No.  5 — HUSTLE 

“Have  your  men  start  out  early;  send  out  advertising 
matter;  keep  a  good  P.  P.  list;  mail  circular  letters,  and 
above  all,  take  advantage  of  the  many  suggestions  pub¬ 
lished  in  The  N.  C.  R” 

Mr.  Patterson  would  not  brook  further  opposition  to  the 
‘Primer.’ 

“Complaint  is  made  that  a  great  many  of  our  salesmen 
could  not  repeat  the  ‘Primer’  in  a  natural  way.  It  is 
claimed  that  the  language  is  not  suitable  to  their  style; 
that  it  is  away  above  what  they  would  be  accustomed  to 
say;  that  it  is  accurate,  while  they  are  accustomed  to  be 
inaccurate  in  everything  they  say;  and  when  they  speak 
accurately  it  does  not  seem  natural.  Hence,  the  ‘Primer’ 
is  a  bad  thing  for  them  to  commit  to  memory  and  prac¬ 
tice. 

“If  a  man  is  as  ignorant  as  that,  the  sooner  we  get  rid  of 


BRIDGING  THE  PANIC  OF  1893 


149 


him  the  better.  It  is  better  for  him  to  speak  accurately 
than  to  make  the  mistakes  made  by  nearly  all  salesmen 
whom  we  have  heretofore  examined. 

“We  will  accept  no  excuse  for  a  man  not  being  able  to 
learn  the  ‘Primer/  If  he  hasn’t  the  intelligence,  we  do 
not  want  him  as  a  salesman. 

“Nearly  all  of  the  sales  agents  and  salesmen  we  ex¬ 
amined  said:  ‘We  treat  each  man  differently.  We  size  a 
man  up  and  give  him  the  kind  of  talk  we  think  is  best.’ 
This  is  foolish  talk.  How  would  it  do  for  a  good  actor 
like  Booth,  every  time  he  plays  Hamlet,  to  play  it  in  a 
different  way?  One  storekeeper  is  the  same  as  another. 
Each  one  is  in  business  to  make  money;  and,  if  you  can 
prove  it  to  him  that  he  can  make  more  money  by  our 
system  than  by  his  own,  you  have  gone  a  long  way 
toward  securing  an  order. 

“The  one  way  to  convince  a  man  that  our  system  is 
better  than  his  is  by  the  ‘Primer’  and  the  ‘Book  of  Argu¬ 
ments,’  supplementing  them  by  any  other  arguments  at 
your  command.  Do  not  treat  each  man  differently; 
treat  all  alike,  and  use  the  ‘Primer’  in  the  demonstration 
of  the  register.” 

But  in  this  and  in  every  other  part  of  the  selling  he  in¬ 
sisted  that  the  salesman  put  himself  in  the  place  of  the 
prospect. 

“Do  not  attempt  to  talk  to  a  man  who  is  not  listening, 
who  is  writing  a  letter  or  occupying  himself  in  any  other 
way  while  you  are  talking.  That’s  useless,  and  is  a  loss 
of  self-respect  and  of  his  respect.  If  he  cannot  give  you 
his  attention,  say  to  him:  ‘I  see  that  you  are  busy.  If 
you  can  give  me  your  attention  for  a  few  minutes  I  shall 
be  pleased;  but  I  don’t  want  to  interrupt  you,  if  you  can¬ 
not  spare  the  time,  and  I  will  call  again.’ 


150 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“Put  yourself  in  his  place  from  the  very  start.  Make 
him  feel,  not  that  you  are  trying  to  force  your  business 
upon  him  but  that  you  want  to  discuss  how  his  business 
may  be  benefited  by  you.” 

The  panic  broke :  the  business  of  the  country  dropped  to 
nothing.  Not  so  the  N.  C.  R.  business — the  agents  sold 
on  the  ground  that  merchants  had  so  few  dollars  that 
they  had  better  take  care  of  every  one  of  them!  The 
year  1892  had  been  a  good  one — the  company  had  shipped 
15,003  registers  as  against  11,956  in  the  previous  year. 
In  1893 — the  year  of  “no  business” — the  company  sold 
the  record  number  of  15,487!  That  is  what  intensive 
selling  did. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  Mr.  Patterson,  reviewing  events, 
said: 

“The  year  of  1893  has  been  unparalleled  in  the  history 
of  the  United  States.  Great  questions  were  to  be  solved, 
every  industry  was  stagnant,  and  it  was  a  time  when  it 
behooved  all  large  corporations  to  carefully  watch  and 
wait.  Some  closed  down,  some  lost  courage,  while  a 
few  pushed  ahead  and  worked  harder  than  ever  with  con¬ 
fidence  in  the  future.  We  belonged  to  the  very  few  that 
did  not  give  up,  made  extra  efforts  to  succeed,  and  we  are 
now  in  excellent  condition  for  1894. 

“We  did  not  let  the  hard  times  interfere  with  our  work. 
When  times  got  duller,  we  advertised  the  more  and  worked 
the  harder.  When  the  panic  struck  the  country  we  were 
somewhat  undecided  as  to  what  best  to  do,  but  we  de¬ 
termined  to  strain  every  nerve  to  force  the  business,  and 
have,  since  that  time,  strengthened  our  organization  at 
every  weak  point,  both  at  the  factory  and  on  the  outside. 
Future  prospects  now  show  that  we  were  justified  in  keep¬ 
ing  our  immense  force  busy,  especially  on  experimental 


I— THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  N.  C.  R.  PLANT 

Upper:  Its  factory  space  in  1884,  1886,  and  1887.  Lower:  The  first  N.  C.  R.  factory, 

in  1888,  on  the  present  location 


II— THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  N.  C.  R.  PLANT 
Upper:  Another  view  of  Building  No.  1,  completed  in  sixty  days  in  1888.  The 
split  post  referred  to  in  the  text  is  in  the  foreground.  Lower:  The  N.  C.  R.  plant 
in  1890,  a  wing  having  been  added  to  the  first  building  of  1888 


BRIDGING  THE  PANIC  OF  1893 


151 


and  tool  work,  and  on  new  registers  for  England  and 
Germany.  There  are  very  few  manufacturing  concerns 
that  have  kept  their  force  of  employees  so  busily  engaged 
as  our  men  at  the  factory,  and  we  all  feel  grateful  to  our 
sales  agents  and  salesmen  for  the  orders  received  during 
these  dull  times.” 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  SELLING 

THE  spirit  which  made  Mr.  Patterson  a  great  man 
cannot  be  better  expressed  than  in  the  words  he 
once  used  to  a  convention  when  critical  times 
seemed  to  be  ahead.  He  said: 

“If  there  ever  comes  a  time  in  this  business  when 
courage  will  not  be  necessary,  when  it  will  not  be  necessary 
for  us  to  fight  against  obstacles,  I  shall  know  it  is  time  to 
put  up  the  shutters,  turn  off  the  power,  and  draw  the 
fires  for  all  time.” 

This  one  paragraph  means  a  great  deal.  It  means  that 
the  very  thought  of  ease  was  cast  out  of  Mr.  Patterson’s 
life  and  therefore  out  of  the  life  of  the  N.  C.  R. — for  the 
N.  C.  R.  was  his  life  multiplied.  It  meant  that  there 
could  be  no  cinch  jobs  anywhere  in  the  company.  It 
meant  that  there  could  be  no  chair-warming  salesmen. 
It  meant  that  “hard  to  sell”  was  not  an  excuse — for  a 
man  who  did  not  expect  to  find  it  hard  to  sell  cash  reg¬ 
isters  was  not  expected  to  come  with  the  company. 
Mr.  Patterson  would  not  bother  with  any  one  who  was 
afraid  to  go  upstream. 

This  thought  dominated  Mr.  Patterson’s  life,  and  now, 
with  the  experience  of  having  not  merely  weathered  but 
actually  turned  to  advantage  the  Panic  of  1893  and  having 
seen  what  trained  salesmanship  could  do,  he  decided  that 
as  far  as  his  company  was  concerned  all  salesmen  would  be 
trained.  He  dismissed  utterly  the  then-prevailing  theory 

152 


SCIENTIFIC  SELLING 


153 


that  salesmen  were  born,  not  made.  I  think  he  is  the 
first  man  who  consciously  started  in  to  make  salesmen. 
He  said: 

“It  has  always  been  stated  that  cash-register  salesmen 
were  born,  not  made.  This  is  a  big  bubble  that  most  of 
the  sales  agents  have  helped  to  blow,  but  we  have  pricked 
it  and  it  has  collapsed.  I  find  that  cash-register  salesmen 
are  made.  I  would  rather  take  a  new  man  and  train 
him  into  the  business  than  to  take  an  experienced  cash- 
register  man  and  try  to  teach  him  new  things.  The  green 
man  would  make  the  better  salesman.  Many  of  the 
sales  agents,  who  have  been  in  the  business  for  a  long  time, 
will  not  accept  any  new  points  from  us.  They  think  we 
know  nothing  about  selling  cash  registers,  and  they  get 
angry  with  us  for  suggestions  which  we  may  make.  Such 
men  can  never  hope  to  make  much  money.  It  is  the  men 
who  are  willing  to  accept  information  and  profit  by  it 
that  will  get  ahead  in  this  world;  therefore,  I  think  that 
better  salesmen  can  be  made  of  new,  green  men,  who  are 
willing  and  energetic,  than  can  be  made  of  men  who  have 
had  some  experience  in  this  business.” 

He  had  already,  as  was  outlined  in  the  last  chapter,  set 
down  five  things  that  a  salesman  must  do  as  opposed  to 
suggesting  what  a  salesman  might  do,  and  it  was  during 
this  period  that  the  significance  of  the  number  “five” 
began  to  grow  upon  him.  You  will  find,  going  through 
the  affairs  and  the  literature  of  the  Cash  Register  Com¬ 
pany,  that  practically  all  subjects  are  separated  into  five 
divisions.  Five  was  to  Mr.  Patterson  what  seven  was  to 
the  ancients.  The  pyramid  charts,  which  later  became 
one  of  the  distinguishing  marks  of  the  company,  were 
nearly  always  in  five  columns.  No  one  quite  knows  how 
Mr.  Patterson  happened  to  settle  on  this  number,  but 


154 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


probably  it  grew  out  of  his  habit  of  demonstrating  his 
points  by  using  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  Then  he  re¬ 
flected  that  there  were  five  senses,  five  kinds  of  money — 
gold,  silver,  copper,  nickel,  and  paper;  that  a  customer 
in  a  store  did  one  of  five  things — buy  for  cash,  buy  on 
credit,  pay  on  account,  collect  a  bill,  or  change  money. 
You  will  find  the  number  “five”  woven  into  the  fabric  of 
the  N.  C.  R. 

Having  decided  that  all  salesmen  must  be  trained,  the 
natural  step  was  to  establish  a  school  for  their  training. 
Mr.  Patterson  thought  in  terms  of  schools.  The  world 
to  him  was  a  school.  His  conventions  had  developed  into 
seminars.  He  said: 

“If  the  agents  can  sell  registers  by  their  present  meth¬ 
ods,  they  can  sell  twice  as  many  if  properly  trained.” 

So  on  April  4,  1894,  he  opened  the  first  agents’  train¬ 
ing  school  in  a  little  cottage  on  the  lawn  of  the  old  Patter¬ 
son  homestead.  This  is  the  “cottage  under  the  elm 
tree”  and  it  marks  another  new  idea  brought  by  Mr. 
Patterson  into  American  business.  The  school  was  begun, 
not  primarily  to  train  new  agents,  but  to  train  the  agents 
already  selling.  He  announced  that  every  man  selling 
for  the  N.  C.  R.  must  go  through  this  school;  and  in  two 
years  every  man  did  go  through.  The  company  paid  the 
transportation  and  hotel  bills  of  the  students  and  allowed 
them  three  dollars  a  week  for  pocket  money.  The  first 
class  of  thirty-seven  students  was  partly  drawn  from  those 
who  had  been  in  attendance  at  the  company’s  exhibit 
at  the  World’s  Fair.  Of  the  thirty-seven,  nine  took 
a  two-weeks’  course.  These  were  N.  C.  R.  salesmen 
brought  in  for  this  period  of  time.  Eight  dropped  after 
two  or  three  days.  Three  came  in  near  the  end  of  the 
course  and  were  transferred  to  class  two.  This  left 


Ill— THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  N.  C.  R.  PLANT 

Upper:  The  first  daylight  factory  erected  in  America  by  “J.  H.  P.”  at  Dayton. 
Lower:  The  1888-90  building  after  remodelling  and  enlargement 


* 

13 

An  airplane  view  of  the  factory  as  it  looks  to-day 


SCIENTIFIC  SELLING 


155 


seventeen  new  men  to  the  business  graduating  in  the 
first  class.  Five  of  the  pupils  in  that  first  school — W.  H 
Ashton,  C.  H.  Turner,  L.  E.  Wilson,  Z.  H.  Lassater,  and 
D.  J.  Moran,  afterward  became  sales  agents.  One  of 
the  sales  agents  describes  the  school  thus: 

“I  shall  never  forget  the  first  salesmen’s  school  I 
attended.  It  was  held  in  a  little  cottage  under  the  big 
elm  tree.  Mr.  Joseph  H.  Crane  was  the  teacher.  He 
had  many  other  duties;  among  others,  he  was  sales 
manager,  so  he  was  not  in  the  schoolroom  much.  How¬ 
ever,  on  examination  day  he  was  always  sure  to  be  on 

* 

hand. 

“We  had  a  primer  of  about  four  hundred  and  fifty 
words,  which  it  was  necessary  to  be  able  to  say  word  for 
word.  You  were  not  considered  bright  enough  to  be¬ 
come  an  N.  C.  R.  man  if  you  could  not  recite  it  well. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  well  to  be  too  bright.  A 
happy  medium  was  the  proper  thing.  Then  you  might 
make  good. 

“The  great  worry  was:  could  you  get  through  your 
examination  and  get  your  diploma?  If  you  did  get  it, 
you  thought  yourself  about  ‘it.’  However,  your  first 
few  weeks  in  the  territory  determined  how  much  you 
amounted  to,  and  in  that  short  space  of  time  you  found 
yourself  not  very  much — you  realized  your  real  worth.” 

The  school  brought  many  changes.  Those  salesmen 
who  would  not  take  the  four-  or  five- weeks’  course  dropped 
out  of  the  company.  Mr.  Patterson  did  not  bother  about 
this.  He  had  decided  on  his  policy  and  he  stuck  to  it, 
and,  in  addition,  the  company  was  getting  applications 
from  all  over  the  country  for  permission  to  enter  the 
school.  Although  we  have  some  splendid  N.  C.  R.  sales¬ 
men  from  the  early  days,  such  as  F.  S.  High,  John  T. 


156 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Watson,  H.  B.  Whitehouse,  and  J.  J.  Range.  Every  one 
of  these  men  was  among  those  who  grasped  the  impor¬ 
tance  of  the  new  move  and  fell  right  in  with  it.  The 
others  dropped  out.  Mr.  Watson  told  me  that  adopting 
these  methods  immediately  more  than  doubled  his  per¬ 
sonal  sales.  But  not  all  the  men  could  see  this.  The 
natural-born  salesman  went  out  of  the  N.  C.  R.  with  the 
coming  of  the  training  school. 

Study  also  brought  about  changes  in  the  primer.  Mr. 
Joseph  H.  Crane’s  name  had  been  on  it  and  he  felt,  and 
Mr.  Patterson  felt,  that  it  ought  to  be  a  company  prod¬ 
uct.  The  company  started  to  change  the  primer,  and  the 
salesmen  immediately  objected  that  no  sooner  had  they 
learned  it  than  it  was  changed.  Then  Mr.  Patterson,  who 
never  had  the  slightest  confidence  in  the  writing  ability 
of  any  one  connected  with  the  company — no  matter  how 
excellent  that  ability  frequently  was — took  the  primer  to 
Boston  under  what  must  be  called  a  delusion  that  the 
fountain  head  of  the  language  was  there.  He  hired  a 
college  professor  and  had  the  primer  done  into  the  sim¬ 
plest  and  most  direct  forms  of  language.  Mr.  Patterson 
always  objected  to  the  Latin  derivatives.  He  wanted 
Anglo-Saxon  words,  and  his  test  of  good  writing  was  the 
ability  of  an  utterly  uneducated  man  to  understand  what 
was  written.  The  word-slinger  never  found  a  berth  in 
the  N.  C.  R.,  nor  did  the  pedant. 

The  school  taught  the  primer.  It  taught  the  demonstra¬ 
tion  of  all  the  machines  the  company  then  made.  It 
taught  price  lists,  store  systems,  the  manual,  the  getting 
of  prospects,  and  the  mechanism  of  the  machine.  It  did 
not  teach  the  students  how  to  repair  machines.  Mr. 
Patterson  was  insistent  that  an  agent  should  not  know 
how  to  act  as  a  repair  man  and  even  went  so  far  as  to 


SCIENTIFIC  SELLING 


157 


prohibit  agents  from  carrying  screw-drivers.  For,  he 
pointed  out,  a  mechanically  inclined  agent  with  a  screw¬ 
driver  will  spend  so  much  time  tinkering  with  machines 
that  he  will  forget  to  sell  them.  He  shortly  established  a 
school  for  repair  men,  in  which  the  students  spent  part  of 
their  time  working  in  the  factory  and  part  in  the  lecture 
room. 

The  first  agents’  training  school  proved  to  be  too  big, 
and  in  about  a  year  classes  were  limited  to  fifteen  men. 
The  expense  of  bringing  so  many  men  to  Dayton  proved 
rather  a  serious  burden,  particularly  as  quite  a  number  of 
the  men  later  on  came  merely  for  the  trip.  So  in  a  short 
while  the  training  schools  began  to  be  held  all  over  the 
country.  It  was  cheaper  to  send  teachers  out  than  to 
bring  pupils  in.  In  the  beginning  any  man  who  wanted 
to  attend  school  was  put  through  the  course  and  given 
a  chance  to  sell,  but  shortly  it  was  discovered  that  many 
men  were  attending  in  order  to  gain  training  in  selling  and 
not  because  they  wanted  to  become  N.  C.  R.  salesmen. 
Mr.  Patterson  would  have  been  perfectly  willing  to  train 
any  man  who  wanted  training,  but  the  company  simply 
could  not  afford  to  do  it.  So  they  made  it  a  condition 
of  entry  that  a  man  should  have  spent  at  least  six  months 
trying  to  sell  cash  registers.  It  was  considered  that  any 
man  who  would  stick  through  six  months  of  selling  was 
worth  spending  some  money  on.  Mr.  Patterson  once 
worked  out  with  me  the  foundation  and  the  progress  of  the 
school.  This  is  essentially  what  he  said: 

“That  school  was  elementary  as  compared  with  the 
present  day  but  its  methods  were  the  same  as  are  used 
to-day — that  is,  the  bulk  of  the  teaching  was  through  the 
eye.  There  was  nothing  abstract  about  the  school. 
When  explaining  the  functions  of  a  register,  a  machine  was 


158 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


always  before  the  class.  When  making  a  demonstration 
or  an  installation,  the  fittings  were  true  to  life;  we  had 
all  the  stage  settings.  If  the  event  were  supposed  to  take 
place  in  a  grocery  store,  we  had  a  store  fitted  up  with 
real  groceries  in  it — we  now  have  dozens  of  completely 
equipped  little  stores  in  our  main  building. 

“  We  do  not  to-day  depend  upon  memory  in  the  abstract 
but  only  through  association  of  ideas;  that  makes  the 
man  more  natural  in  his  bearing  and  sales  talk  than  if  he 
tried  to  think  of  the  arguments  without  having  the  actual 
thing  before  him.  In  fact,  we  have  to-day  abandoned 
memorizing;  we  would  prefer  that  the  man  use  his  own 
words  whenever  he  can,  provided  those  words  are  simple 
and  to  the  point.  We  made  a  test  on  this  matter  of 
memorizing.  During  five  and  a  half  years  26  per  cent, 
of  588  men  hired  made  good  with  memorized  sales 
talks;  of  586  men  who  were  instructed  not  to  memo¬ 
rize  but  to  put  in  their  own  personalities,  78  per  cent, 
made  records  that  entitled  them  to  continue  with  us. 
That  decided  us  against  memorizing. 

“We  teach  all  that  we  can  about  every  business  we  can 
so  that  any  agent  can  at  once  grasp  the  reasons  why  a 
particular  merchant  should  have  a  register.  We  teach 
him  under  five  general  heads:  General  Instruction, 
Objections  and  Answers,  Selling  Points,  Closing  Argu¬ 
ments,  and  Miscellaneous.  We  give  him  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  mechanism  and  the  building  of  a  reg¬ 
ister  by  having  him  instructed  in  the  factory  from  the 
raw  material  to  the  finished  product,  and  in  addition  to 
all  this  we  have  him  call  on  and  talk  with  users  of  the 
machines  in  the  Dayton  stores  and  also  in  the  large  de¬ 
partment  stores  of  the  big  cities.  He  is  taught  not  only 
the  strength  of  our  system  but  also  the  weaknesses  of 


SCIENTIFIC  SELLING 


159 


other  systems.  We  teach  this  almost  entirely  through 
the  eye  as  well  as  through  the  ear,  and  we  use  as  supple¬ 
ments  to  the  talks  not  only  the  actual  scenes  in  our  model 
shops  but  also  through  lantern  slides,  motion  pictures,  and 
diagrams. 

“Part  of  the  training  of  the  salesman  involves  the 
stressing  of  good  habits,  of  neatness  in  dress,  in  planning 
of  work  and  of  routes,  and  of  knowing  how  best  to  use 
the  sales  literature  which  is  regularly  sent  to  him.  This 
attention  to  detail  does  not  tend  to  kill  individuality; 
on  the  contrary,  it  makes  certain  that  whatever  is  in  the 
man  will  be  turned  into  the  direction  of  greatest  effi¬ 
ciency.  Proper  schooling  of  any  kind  stimulates  a  man; 
it  is  only  the  improper  that  surrounds  him  with  and 
binds  him  into  a  rigid  formalism. 

“This  training  does  not  make  salesmen;  no  training 
can  do  that.  There  has  to  be  the  something  to  work  with, 
and  getting  the  man  with  that  something  is  a  hard  task. 
I  know  of  no  method  that  will  determine  in  advance  that 
a  man  is  going  to  make  good.  We  have  among  our  best 
men  almost  every  known  type.  Our  only  gauge  of  a 
man  is  his  record.  If  he  sells  he  is  good  and  if  he  does 
not  he  is  a  failure. 

“We  tried  for  many  years  taking  salesmen  from  other 
lines,  putting  them  through  our  course,  and  then  starting 
them  out.  But  the  percentage  of  failures  was  so  high 
and  the  process  was  so  expensive  that  we  stopped  it  al¬ 
most  entirely,  and  to-day  we  try  to  take  men  from  out  of 
the  organization.  We  offer  courses  in  the  N.  C.  R.  City 
Club  to  employees  who  wish  to  learn  salesmanship  and 
they  thus  have  the  opportunity  to  gain  at  least  a  trial 
for  themselves.  We  consider  every  man  in  the  company 
a  potential  salesman.  For  instance,  until  the  war  be- 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


160 

J 

gan,  we  employed  only  male  clerks  and  stenographers  in 
the  sales  department  because  thus  these  men  could  absorb 
the  atmosphere  of  the  company  and  qualify  for  road 
positions.  Our  present  sales  manager  started  in  the 
department  as  a  stenographer.  It  is  likewise  throughout 
the  sales  office  and  agencies  in  the  field.  All  of  the  mien 
there  employed  have  the  opportunity  to  be  tried  as  sales¬ 
people  and  to  have  a  look  in  for  the  bigger  money.” 

That  the  idea  of  a  training  school  is  a  good  one  needs 
no  argument.  The  record  of  the  N.  C.  R.  shows  that,  and 
it  is  also  shown  by  the  fact  that  every  first-class  sales 
company  now  maintains  selling  schools.  The  agents 
working  under  the  Patterson  methods  began  to  make 
money — to  make  more  money  than  agents  had  ever  made 
before  in  any  line — and  that  brought  up  a  new  and 
curious  difficulty.  The  company  had  been  paying  a  very 
liberal  commission.  It  was  then  the  general  notion 
among  business  men,  for  this  was  the  age  of  pettiness  in 
business,  that  tradition  and  not  performance  should  con¬ 
trol  compensation.  If  a  workman  earned  beyond  a  cer¬ 
tain  amount,  he  was  supposed  to  be  earning  more  than 
was  good  for  him.  If  a  salesman  earned  beyond  a  certain 
amount,  his  employer  began  to  fear  that  he  might  fall 
into  ways  of  extravagance.  The  employers  of  that  day 
were  most  solicitous  of  the  welfare  of  those  they  em¬ 
ployed.  They  were  very  careful  to  prevent  the  vices  of 
extravagance  among  the  common  people  by  seeing  that 
the  common  people  did  not  get  too  much  money  for  their 
work.  But  by  no  means  all  of  these  employers  were  the 
psalm-singing  old  hypocrites  that  a  survey  of  their  actions 
would  lead  one  to  believe.  It  was  just  that  most  of 
them  held  dollars  so  close  to  their  eyes  that  they  could  not 
even  see  their  own  interests  beyond  them. 


SCIENTIFIC  SELLING 


161 


The  N.  C.  R.  agents  thought  that  if  they  made  too 
much  money  Mr.  Patterson  would  immediately  cut  their 
commissions.  They  could  not  understand  any  other 
course,  and  there  was  no  reason  why  they  should  under¬ 
stand  any  other  course.  It  was  one  of  Mr.  Patterson’s 
hardest  tasks  at  this  time  to  convince  the  sales  force  that 
the  N.  C.  R.  interest  was  in  having  the  largest  possible 
number  of  cash  registers  sold  and  that  the  company  could 
not  make  any  money  unless  the  agents  did.  As  John 
Crawford,  then  the  New  York  agent,  said  to  a  salesman 
who  had  laid  off  after  making  what  he  thought  was  as 
much  as  the  company  would  pay  him  for  a  week’s  work: 

“You’re  a  fool.  If  you  can  sell  a  million  dollars  in  a 
week,  we’ll  hire  a  brass  band  to  take  your  commission 
to  you.  We  can’t  make  any  money  unless  you  do.” 

Mr.  Patterson’s  actions  in  refusing  to  cut  commissions 
were  severely  condemned  by  many  men  in  business.  It 
was  said  that  he  was  putting  false  ideas  into  agents.  He 
cheerfully  went  on  with  that  practice  and  thought  up  a 
great  number  of  other  things  for  which  he  might  be  con¬ 
demned.  For  instance,  he  always  published  the  lists  of 
purchasers.  He  spent  a  lot  of  money  getting  these  lists 
before  the  public,  whereas  at  that  time  lists  of  customers 
were  supposed  to  be  valued  trade  secrets.  He  refused 
absolutely  to  subscribe  to  the  notion  that  a  market  could 
be  saturated.  It  was  then  the  general  custom  to  devote 
quite  as  much  time  to  seeing  that  too  much  was  not  sold 
as  to  seeing  that  enough  was  sold.  After  the  record  year 
of  1893  the  wise  heads  of  the  country  were  talking  about 
the  sale  of  cash  registers  having  reached  the  saturation 
point  and  that  if  the  company  were  not  careful  it  would 
soon  find  itself  without  any  one  else  to  sell  to.  Mr. 
Patterson  never  even  really  found  out  what  these  people 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


102 

were  talking  about.  He  had  a  vivid  imagination  but  it 
would  never  carry  him  so  far  as  to  visualize  how  the  coun¬ 
try  would  look  if  it  did  not  need  cash  registers.  He  had 
early  conceived  that  a  cash  register  was  required  for  every 
four  hundred  people  in  the  United  States.  At  first  he 
used  to  publish  the  number  of  cash  registers  sold  by  the 
salesmen.  This  seemed  unfair  when  the  territories  were 
compared.  For  instance,  Crane  &  Co.  had  12  per  cent, 
in  point  of  population  of  the  United  States.  And  so 
he  began  to  give  the  records  not  in  terms  of  gross  sales 
but  in  percentages  according  to  the  population  of  the 
sales  districts.  As  more  registers  were  added  to  the  line 
and  the  prices  increased  in  range,  the  number  of  registers 
sold  did  not  indicate  the  number  of  dollars’  worth  of 
business  done,  so  results  were  announced  in  points — a 
point  being  twenty-five  dollars.  All  registers  were  priced 
in  multiples  of  twenty-five  dollars. 

From  this  grew  the  famous  quota  system,  which  did  not 
formally  come  into  use  until  1900.  The  number  of  regis¬ 
ters  to  be  sold  in  a  district  was  still  roughly  calculated 
as  one  for  each  four  hundred  of  population,  but  this  was 
an  arbitrary  figure,  and  the  number  of  registers  sold  be¬ 
came,  with  the  improvements  in  the  types  of  registers, 
less  important  than  the  dollar  value  of  the  register,  and 
so  districts  began  to  be  calculated  in  points.  These  quotas 
were  finally  worked  out  on  the  basis  of  what  had  been  done 
in  previous  years,  and  thus  Mr.  Patterson  broke  entirely 
with  the  saturation  theory.  He  said  that  if  a  man  could 
sell  fifty  points  in  a  district  in  one  year  he  could  sell  at 
least  fifty  in  that  district  in  every  succeeding  year.  That 
is  the  basis  on  which  the  quotas  have  since  been  arranged, 
and  the  remarkable  fact  is  that  while  many,  indeed  most, 
N.  C.  R.  quotas  have  been  raised,  not  one  of  them  has  ever 


“He  had  it  firmly  fixed  in  his  mind  that  the  product  must  ever  be  improved,  and  gradually  this  became  an  integral  part  of  the  busi¬ 
ness.”  As  early  as  1888  he  put  the  Experimental  Department  of  the  N.  C.  R.  Co.  in  charge  of  Mr.  I.  D.  Boyer,  a  scientific  and  practical 
draftsman,  with  two  expert  experimenters  and  model  makers  whose  duties  were  to  mature  and  materialize  Mr.  Boyer’s  ideas. 


A  ROUGH  DRAWING  OF  A  PATENT  BY  “J.  H.  P.” 

Between  1884  and  1888,  he  took  out  twelve  patents  in  his  own  name,  and  all 
through  his  memorandum  books  of  this  period  are  found  sketches  of  new  ideas, 
some  of  which  developed  into  patents. 


SCIENTIFIC  SELLING 


163 


been  lowered.  Out  of  the  quotas  and  the  points  grew 
the  famous  “Hundred  Point  Club,”  of  which  more  later. 

Mr.  Patterson  was  insistent  that  salesmen  should  have 
exclusive  territory,  that  a  quota  be  set  for  each  territory, 
and  that  men  who  could  not  realize  their  quota  should  get 
out.  He  said: 

“I  want  to  show  to  everybody  that  it  is  to  the  interest 
of  the  sales  agents  to  divide  up  and  give  guaranteed 
territory.  For  instance,  you  cut  it  into  five  districts  in  a 
city  or  state.  Here  is  one  that  is  not  occupied.  Now,  I 
claim  that  as  long  as  this  territory  is  unoccupied,  a  man 
in  another  territory  has  no  business  to  get  over  into  this 
unoccupied  territory  and  sell  a  register,  if  he  knows  that 
he  can  sell  one.  You  may  say  that  if  that  territory  is 
lying  idle  and  if  a  salesman  from  another  territory  knows 
that  he  can  sell  a  register  there,  why  not  let  him  go  over 
and  sell  in  that  territory?  I  say  you  have  a  rule;  you 
have  a  system,  and  I  claim  that  it  is  very  wrong  to  let 
him  go  across  there,  if  he  is  just  across  the  street,  because 
we  start  out  on  this  supposition,  that  this  man  has  all 
he  can  attend  to  and  watch  in  his  own  territory.  Now, 
just  as  long  as  you  allow  that  territory  to  remain  open 
for  this  man  to  run  into,  you  cannot  get  an  agent  to  go  in 
there.  You  want  that  territory  occupied,  and  just  as 
long  as  you  allow  three  or  four  men  to  go  in  there  from 
other  territories  and  sell,  and  as  long  as  you  allow  them 
a  commission,  so  long  is  that  territory  going  to  be  vacant. 
But  you  want  to  put  a  great  big  goose  egg  on  that  territory 
and  let  everybody  know  that  there  is  a  place  that  is 
vacant,  and  you  want  an  agent  for  it,  and  say  to  this 
man:  ‘Now  here,  you  get  an  agent  for  that  territory  for 
me;  if  you  don’t  do  it,  opposition  will  get  in  there  and  they 
will  sell  machines,  and  that  will  hurt  you  all.’  If  you 


164 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


allow  a  man  to  run  into  open  territory  he  would  rather 
spend  a  week  getting  one  order  than  to  get  an  order  in 
his  own  territory  in  three  days.” 

The  N.  C.  R.  salesmen  caught  the  spirit.  They  sold. 
They  sold  according  to  the  primer  and  they  sold  according 
to  their  own  ingenuity  when  nothing  in  the  primer  seemed 
to  fit.  Here  are  some  remarkable  sales  of  A.  C.  Mac- 
Mahon,  who  once  held  the  world’s  record  for  salesmen 
and  who  is  the  man  who  put  cash  registers  into  Marshall 
Field  &  Company  and  into  the  Fair  in  Chicago. 

“What  I  consider  the  most  unusual  sale  I  have  ever 
made  came  not  long  after  this.  It  was  made  at  the  point 
of  a  rifle.  I  shot  my  way  right  into  the  order.  This  is 
how  it  happened. 

“There  was  a  stormy  greeting  at  the  little  store  where 
I  previously  had  demonstrated  to  the  merchant. 

“‘What  has  happened?’  I  asked. 

“‘Well,  if  you  were  in  my  place,  you’d  think  something 
had  happened.  I  guess  you’d  be  thinking  about  making 
up  what  you  had  lost  rather  than  about  paying  out  a  lot 
of  money  for  cash  registers.’ 

“‘Then  something  has  happened.’ 

“‘Look  out  there,’  the  wife  pointed  to  a  pile  of  crates 
in  the  yard.  ‘Those  were  full  of  turkeys  and  they’re  all 
gone.’ 

“That  was  the  trouble.  His  turkeys  had  gotten  out 
and  my  chance  of  closing  the  sale  went  with  them.  It 
was  my  job  to  overcome  whatever  was  in  the  way  of 
making  the  sale,  so  I  told  him  that  I  was  just  the  man 
he  wanted  to  see. 

“‘I  want  to  see  those  turkeys,’  he  retorted,  ‘and  I 
don’t  want  to  talk  about  anything  else.’ 

“‘Very  well,’  I  said,  ‘I’ll  get  the  turkeys  for  you.’ 


SCIENTIFIC  SELLING 


165 


“He  started  to  say  something  but  I  was  out  of  the 
store. 

“Down  in  a  field  I  saw  a  crowd  of  boys  throwing  stones 
up  into  a  tree  and  I  went  over  to  see  about  it.  There 
were  the  turkeys  up  in  the  tree. 

“I  gave  a  dollar  to  the  boy  who  brought  me  a  .22  rifle 
and  some  cartridges.  The  boys  got  the  empty  crates 
and  I  started  shooting  those  turkeys  out  of  the  tree. 

“If  you  just  nick  a  turkey  in  the  neck,  you  can  stun 
it  without  any  permanent  injury.  In  my  younger  days 
I  had  held  some  records  for  fancy  shooting  and  now  I 
used  my  full  bag  of  tricks.  Every  one  of  those  turkeys 
came  down  stunned  and  the  boys  chucked  them  into  the 
crates.  When  the  last  one  was  stowed  away,  we  carried 
them  back  to  the  store. 

“I  went  around  to  the  front  door. 

“‘Good  morning,5  I  said,  just  as  if  I  had  never  seen  the 
merchant  before.  ‘I  would  like  to  talk  with  you  a  few 
minutes  about  the  losses  which,  every  day,  are  eating  up 
the  profits  of  your  business.5 

“‘Get  out  of  here!5  he  yelled.  ‘I’ve  got  enough  to  do 
to  think  about  my  lost  turkeys.5 

“‘Oh,  those  turkeys.  They’re  back.5 

“‘You’re  crazy.5 

“But  his  wife  went  and  looked.  She  screamed  at  her 
husband  and  he  also  ran  and  looked. 

“‘I  told  you  I  would  bring  them  back,5  I  said,  just  as 
if  recovering  lost  turkeys  was  my  usual  job.  ‘Now  with 
your  thanks,  I  will  say  good-bye.5 

“‘Come  back  here,5  they  both  insisted. 

“‘I  want  that  cash  register  you  told  me  about,5  the 
merchant  said. 

“‘Give  him  a  check,5  the  wife  urged. 


166 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“And  I  walked  out  with  the  order  signed  and  the  check 
in  my  pocket. 

“There  was  an  old  grocer  down  in  central  Kentucky,  a 
follower  of  Dowie,  who  carried  his  religious  convictions 
to  such  an  extreme  that  he  would  have  in  his  store  nothing 
which  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  He  was  a  hard  nut 
which  every  new  salesman  was  sent  to  crack. 

“I  arranged  for  him  and  his  daughter  to  go  to  the 
hotel  to  see  our  latest  model  registers,  ‘not  that  I  ex¬ 
pected  them  to  buy,  but  that  I  wanted  their  endorsement 
as  the  leading  merchants  in  the  city.’ 

“The  daughter,  I  learned,  was  a  well-educated  young 
lady  and  interested  in  the  drama.  After  the  demonstra¬ 
tion  I  told  her  I  had  followed  the  dramatic  profession  and 
had  often  impersonated  Edwin  Booth.  She  was  greatly 
interested  and  asked  me  to  tell  about  him. 

“This  is  the  story  I  told  about  Booth: 

“He  had  stopped  over  night  at  a  small-town  hotel. 
Soon  the  other  guests  and  some  of  the  people  of  the  town 
learned  that  it  was  the  great  tragedian  who  had  registered, 
and  a  group  of  the  more  ambitious  asked  the  proprietor 
to  arrange  so  that  they  might  sit  at  the  same  table  with 
Mr.  Booth  at  breakfast. 

“Mr.  Booth  agreed,  and  the  next  morning  the  guests 
asked  him  for  a  reading. 

“Thinking  that  the  guests  might  not  understand  Shake¬ 
speare,  he  said:  T  will  read  for  you  the  most  beautiful 
thing  ever  written.’ 

“‘This  is  what  he  read,’  I  said,  and  started  to  repeat 
the  Lord’s  Prayer,  as  Mr.  Booth  had  given  it  on  that 
particular  morning. 

“When  I  got  as  far  as  ‘Lead  us  not  into  temptation,’  I 
stopped,  and  turned  to  the  merchant  and  said: 


SCIENTIFIC  SELLING 


167 


“‘It  seems  as  though  a  greater  power  than  the  Na¬ 
tional  Cash  Register  Company  has  brought  me  to  this 
city. 

“‘You  have  six  young  men  working  for  you  in  your 
store.  The  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil  and  your 
money  is  tempting  them  every  day. 

“‘The  doors  of  the  penitentiary  are  yawning  for  these 
young  men  and  you  are  doing  nothing  to  keep  them  from 
temptation. 

“‘You  can  preach  about  temptation  and  pray  about 
temptation,  but  still  you  are  putting  temptation  right  in 
front  of  those  six  young  men.’ 

“That’s  what  sold  him.” 


CHAPTER  XI 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE 

THE  pushing,  driving  force  of  Mr.  Patterson  soon 
compelled  the  N.  C.  R.  to  look  for  additional  fac¬ 
tory  space.  In  1886  he  took  over  two  floors  of 
the  old  Callahan  Building  and  in  them  he  produced 
1,050  registers.  The  next  year  he  doubled  the  production 
and  new  quarters  became  imperative.  He  had  no  money 
with  which  to  put  up  a  new  building  and  his  borrowing 
capacity  was  limited  to  the  town  banks.  He  had  all  the 
money  they  could  lend  him;  they  wanted  their  money 
back  and  he  wanted  more  money.  Many  a  manufacturer, 
seeing  the  present  buildings  of  the  company,  says:  “That 
is  a  fine  way  to  manufacture — if  you  have  the  money  to 
do  it  with.”  It  may  be  a  surprise  to  know  that  all  the 
more  important  steps  the  company  took  in  the  way  of 
building  were  taken  without  knowing  how  the  new  struc¬ 
tures  were  going  to  be  paid  for. 

The  present  magnificent  manufacturing  system  of  to¬ 
day’s  company  is  not  the  result  of  an  endowment  fund — 
the  money  for  it  was  not  first  made  in  squalid  quarters. 
The  factory  systems  of  Mr.  Patterson,  his  welfare  work 
and  all  the  various  new  and  expensive  departures  from 
the  traditional  ways  of  manufacturing  were  made  in  the 
face  of  the  most  critical  financial  conditions.  They  were 
not  philanthropies,  but  part  of  the  work  of  building  up 
from  the  ground. 

In  the  early  part  of  1888  Mr.  Patterson  realized  that  he 

168 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE  169 

must  have  a  new  building.  He  decided  to  build  in 
Dayton.  But  here  is  what  happened: 

“We  tried  to  buy  in  town,  but  the  real-estate  agent  lied 
to  us  and  lied  to  the  other  man.  We  wanted  a  piece  of 
ground  uptown  that  was  worth  about  $10,000  and  that 
was  what  we  offered  for  it.  But  the  real-estate  agent  went 
to  the  man  and  said : 

“‘Here,  you  give  me  half  of  the  balance,  and  I  can  get 
you  $13,000  for  it.’ 

“He  said:  ‘All  right,  go  ahead.’ 

“And  the  agent  came  to  me  and  said: 

‘“Mr.  Patterson,  the  very  best  I  can  do  for  you  is  to 
offer  you  the  property  at  $13,000.’ 

“‘No,’  I  said,  ‘the  property  is  not  worth  more  than 
$10,000  and  that  is  all  I  will  give  for  it.’ 

“He  wouldn’t  sell  it.  And  so  one  day  Mr.  Thomas  and 
I  rode  over  the  present  site  in  a  buggy,  and  on  the  hospital 
hill,  over  the  levee,  and  all  around.  I  said  to  him: 

“‘What  do  you  think  of  this?’ 

“‘After  the  way  those  people  have  treated  you  by 
asking  such  prices,’  he  answered,  ‘I  think  you  had  better 
get  out  on  the  old  farm  and  there  property  will  cost 
you  hardly  anything.  Look  what  room  we  will  have  to 
expand.’ 

“A  short  time  afterward  the  owner  came  to  offer  his 
towm  property.  But  we  told  him  that  we  didn’t  want  it 
now  and  that  we  had  decided  to  go  out  to  the  farm. 

“He  said:  ‘Make  me  an  offer,  anyhow.  We  want  you 
in  that  part  of  town.’ 

“‘Why  didn’t  you  want  us  there  two  weeks  ago?’  I 
asked.  ‘Why  didn’t  you  make  us  an  offer  two  weeks 
ago?  Why  didn’t  you  kick  that  man  out — that  man  that 
lied  to  us  both?’” 


170 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


In  April,  1888,  the  work  of  building  started.  Mr. 
Patterson  made  the  most  of  it  in  his  advertising.  He 
always  thought  that  a  factory  was  a  part  of  the  advertising 
of  a  company.  He  held  that  people  felt  more  friendly 
toward  a  product  if  they  knew  how  and  where  it  was  made. 
He  put  a  photograph  of  the  breaking  of  the  ground  into 
The  Hustler .  In  the  foreground  was  a  big  fence  post. 
Mr.  Patterson,  instead  of  having  it  taken  away,  split 
the  top  with  an  axe.  It  was  to  be  something  to  compare 
the  progress  of  the  building  with,  and  further  to  identify 
it  he  said  in  his  advertising  that  the  post  marked  the 
centre  of  population  of  the  United  States.  This  was  not 
quite  accurate  for  the  centre  then,  according  to  the 
census,  was  about  twenty  miles  away.  The  4 ‘split  post” 
figures  in  most  of  the  early  advertising  and  the  post  itself 
is  now  in  the  company  museum. 

Each  month  The  Hustler  carried  photographs  of  the 
progress  of  the  work.  In  a  month  the  first  story  was 
up;  by  June  1st  the  building  was  finished  and  in  operation. 
It  was  a  two-and-a-half-story  brick  building  measuring 
250  feet  by  60  feet  and  it  was  designed  to  last  the  company 
for  ten  years.  At  least  that  is  how  Mr.  Patterson  ex¬ 
plained  to  his  critics  his  reasons  for  making  the  structure 
so  large!  It  is  now  known  as  Building  No.  1  but  it  has 
been  practically  rebuilt  and  is  four  stories  high.  The 
whole  company  was  housed  in  the  one  building  and  it 
followed  the  plans  of  most  factory  buildings  of  the  time 
excepting  that  it  was  a  little  better  looking.  The  win¬ 
dows  were  small,  the  light  was  poor,  and  no  attention 
at  all  had  been  given  to  ventilation.  The  tool  room 
was  so  hot  that  the  men  frequently  had  to  stop  work  in 
summer.  But  at  the  time  it  was  thought  to  be  a  fine 
building. 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE 


171 


The  first  register  turned  out  of  the  new  building  was  a 
No.  2  Detail  Adder  No.  6542,  and  it  was  sold  to  T.  E. 
Twichell  of  New  Haven,  Conn.  During  the  year  the 
company  shipped  6,561  registers — more  than  six  times 
the  sales  of  only  three  years  before.  In  1889  the  com¬ 
pany,  having  the  advantage  of  a  full  twelve  months  in 
the  new  factory,  shipped  9,091  registers.  A  new  foundry 
building  had  to  be  added,  and  before  the  year  was  out  it 
became  evident  that  the  building  was  not  going  to  fill 
the  needs  of  the  company  for  ten  years. 

The  new  building  cost  $40,000.  The  company  had 
plenty  of  customers’  notes  representing  deferred  pay¬ 
ments  on  registers  but  these  Mr.  Patterson  would  not  dis¬ 
count — it  is  doubtful  if  he  could  have  done  so  excepting 
at  a  heavy  loss — and  he  absolutely  refused  to  raise  money 
on  mortgage.  Also  he  did  not  want  to  issue  more  stock — 
if  he  had  he  would  hardly  have  been  able  to  sell  it.  Putting 
up  a  $40,000  building  under  these  circumstances  required 
courage.  But  Mr.  Patterson  merely  remarked  that  if  the 
company  did  not  have  the  means  with  which  to  make 
registers  it  could  not  sell  them;  if  it  could  make  the 
registers  it  could  sell  them — so  the  building  was  bound 
to  pay  for  itself. 

With  the  new  building  came  the  formal  establishment 
of  one  of  the  fundamentals  of  the  success  of  the  company 
and  an  idea  which  Mr.  Patterson  was  the  first  to  work  out 
— the  Inventions  Department.  Previously  Mr.  Patterson 
had  himself  been  the  department.  Between  1884  and 
1888  he  took  out  twelve  patents  in  his  own  name,  and  all 
through  his  memorandum  books  of  this  period  will  be 
found  sketches  of  new  ideas,  some  of  which  developed 
into  patents.  He  had  it  firmly  fixed  in  mind  that  the 
product  must  ever  be  improved,  and  gradually  this  be- 


172  JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

came  an  integral  part  of  the  business.  In  the  early  part 
of  1888  he  said: 

“We  have  now  fifteen  patents  on  our  various  registers; 
have  applications  in  the  patent  office  for  seven  more — 
several  of  which  are  nearly  ready  to  issue. 

“Much  attention  has  been  given  to  enlarging  and 
increasing  the  proficiency  of  the  Experimental  Depart¬ 
ment,  until  now  it  is  completed  and  ready  for  duty. 
Mr.  I.  D.  Boyer,  a  scientific  and  practical  draftsman, 
has  been  given  charge  of  this  department  with  two  expert 
experimenters  and  model  makers,  whose  duties  are  to  ma¬ 
ture  and  materialize  his  ideas. 

“We  consider  the  present  machine  perfect,  but  are  not 
yet  suited,  and  will  not  be  until  it  is  still  further  improved 
and  has  reached  a  higher  standard.  We  shall  continue 
to  experiment  and  give  all  ideas  scientific,  thorough,  and 
practical  tests  before  putting  the  same  on  machines.  No 
expense  or  trouble  will  be  spared  to  fully  try  all  ideas  ad¬ 
vanced  to  us  by  our  representatives,  or  to  try  and  over¬ 
come  any  fault  that  may  be  discovered  in  the  present 
machine.  We  have  the  skilled  men,  and  we  will  do  what 
we  have  aimed  to — perfect  the  National  Cash  Register. 

“That  our  industry  has  outgrown  its  infancy  and  en¬ 
tered  into  the  more  prosperous  and  substantial  growth 
has,  within  the  past  two  months,  become  most  patent. 
There  was  a  time  when  each  register  as  it  was  completed 
was  looked  at,  commented  upon  and  admired  by  the 
officers,  office  force,  and  each  employee  of  the  shop.  We 
have  now  outgrown  the  infancy  of  our  industry,  but  like 
a  fond  parent,  failed  to  note  the  change  until  told  of  it. 
It  has  taken  us  two  months  to  re-systematize  and  change 
our  habiliments  to  those  befitting  our  growth.  All  has 
been  changed  and  thoroughly  systematized.  We  have 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE 


173 


a  place  for  everything  and  everything  will  be  kept  in 
that  place.  Each  department  has  been  enlarged  and  thor¬ 
oughly  equipped.  The  drones  have  been  rooted  out  and 
scienced,  skilled  men  put  into  positions  that  require  in¬ 
telligence  and  experience  to  fill.” 

In  an  interview  with  the  writer  some  years  ago,  Mr. 
Patterson  set  out  his  whole  philosophy  of  keeping  a  prod¬ 
uct  not  only  up  with  but  in  advance  of  the  market.  It 
shows  one  of  the  reasons  for  his  success.  In  part,  he 
said: 

“The  business  that  is  satisfied  with  itself — with  its 
product,  with  its  sales,  which  looks  upon  itself  as  having 
accomplished  its  purpose — is  dead.  The  actual  burial 
may  be  postponed;  but  it  is  dead  because  it  is  not  going 
forward.  To  my  mind,  nothing  can  ever  be  good  enough; 
I  am  always  dissatisfied;  I  preach  dissatisfaction.  I  can 
always  see  where  something  might  be  better;  and  there¬ 
fore  our  business  is  never  at  rest — and  I  never  want  it  to 
be.  The  throbbing  heart  of  business  is  the  intense  desire 
to  do  better.  When  that  desire  ceases,  the  heart  stops 
beating. 

“Every  business  which  works  for  the  betterment  of 
humanity  should  be  eagerly  pressing  forward  and  not 
waiting  to  be  shoved  forward.  There  are  those  who  say 
that  successful  selling  depends  upon  knowing  what  the 
public  is  asking  for  and  then  giving  it  to  them.  I  do  not 
agree  with  this  viewpoint.  I  do  not  think  that  real  suc¬ 
cess  is  attained  by  following  in  the  wake  of  the  public. 

“My  idea  of  successful  business  is  this:  Fill  notonly  every 
known  want  of  your  customers  but  also  have  in  ready  re¬ 
serve  that  which  you  calculate  they  are  going  to  need 
next  year  or  the  year  after.  That  is,  do  not  merely  keep 
up  with  the  market  but  preferably  a  few  paces  ahead 


174 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


in  what  you  are  actually  offering  and  about  a  mile  ahead 
in  your  reserve  offerings. 

“Every  big  success,  individual  or  commercial,  has  fol¬ 
lowed  that  rule.  The  manufacturer  who  merely  caters  to 
his  market  is  never  a  very  big  manufacturer. 

“The  vital  point  is:  4 How  far  shall  I  keep  ahead  of  the 
public?’  If  one  goes  too  far  ahead,  the  public  will  lose 
sight  of  him.  That  has  been  the  unhappy  fate  of  many 
brilliant  men.  There  is  only  one  way  that  I  know  to 
determine  the  exact  lead  to  be  taken,  and  that  is  by 
thoroughly  knowing  the  whole  market  and  its  trends. 
We  devote  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  finding  out,  not 
only  what  the  public  wants  and  what  it  may  need,  but 
also  just  how  ready  it  is  to  absorb  new  ideas.  We  achieve 
our  results:  first,  by  keeping  our  eyes  wide  open  all  the 
time  and  putting  down  all  the  information  that  comes  to 
hand;  and,  second,  by  never  considering  that  we  are  mar¬ 
keting  a  fixed  product. 

“There  is  no  magic  about  it,  no  second  sight,  nor  do  I 
think  it  is  a  gift;  it  is  simply  a  matter  of  not  plodding  along 
with  blindfolded  eyes  and,  when  you  have  seen,  of  reason¬ 
ing  out  the  meaning  so  definitely  that  you  can  write  it  into 
a  chart  and  hang  it  on  the  wall. 

“We  have  made  a  policy  to  be  just  a  short  distance 
ahead,  for  the  cash  register  has  always  had  to  make  its 
market.  We  had  to  educate  our  first  customers;  we  have 
to  educate  our  present-day  customers;  and  our  thought 
has  always  been  to  keep  just  so  far  ahead  that  education 
of  the  buyer  will  always  be  necessary.  Thus  the  market 
will  be  peculiarly  our  own — our  customers  will  feel  that 
we  are  their  natural  teachers  and  leaders. 

“Look  for  a  moment  at  the  progress.  The  first  machine 
did  nothing  more  than  tally  the  cash  by  punching  holes  in 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE 


175 


a  strip  of  paper.  The  proprietor  by  counting  the  holes 
could  tell  how  much  cash  should  be  on  hand.  That  was 
a  cumbersome  and  unsatisfactory  machine  and  it  did  not 
do  nearly  all  that  it  should  have  done;  but  it  did  keep  a 
tally.  The  big  trouble  was,  however,  that  the  proprietor 
had  to  depend  upon  his  own  additions  to  find  the  total. 
This  brought  in  the  possibility  of  mistake.  The  specific 
problem  then  was  to  make  the  machine  keep  the  tally 
itself;  thus  developed  the  automatic  adder. 

“Instead  of  counting  the  pinholes  the  proprietor  now 
took  off  the  totals  from  the  5-cent  sales,  the  10-cent 
sales,  the  25- cent  sales,  and  so  on,  and  adding  these  to¬ 
gether  got  the  grand  total  for  the  day.  His  possibility 
of  error  was  reduced  to  a  mistake  in  adding  the  divisional 
totals.  But  why  should  not  the  machine  make  this 
addition? 

“Then  we  brought  out  a  model  that  made  all  the 
additions.  The  purpose  of  the  cash  register  was  to  safe¬ 
guard  money.  Money  is  not  safeguarded  without  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  bookkeeping  that  will  provide  a  final  check  on  the 
cash.  Therefore,  step  by  step,  the  elaboration  of  the 
cash  register  went  forward  until  to-day,  with  its  printing 
attachments  for  receipts,  its  business  divisions,  and 
other  devices,  it  is  really  more  of  a  mechanical  bookkeeper 
than  a  cash  checker.  In  fact,  it  has  many  uses  that  do 
not  at  all  involve  the  handling  of  cash. 

“I  have  cited  the  progress  of  the  register  only  to  show 
that  it  has  never  remained  stationary  and  has  never,  so 
to  speak,  merely  met  the  market.  There  has  always  been, 
and  always  will  be,  a  demand  for  a  machine  that  will 
perform  a  necessary  operation  better  than  it  can  be  done 
by  hand.  This  demand  increases  as  the  consumer  is 
educated  into  the  new  way;  for  instance,  the  farmer  is 


176 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


every  year  more  and  more  receptive  to  mechanical  aids. 
The  first  sale  of  any  device  is  to  be  considered  only  as 
a  first  lesson  to  the  consumer.  The  big  sales  are  always 
in  the  future. 

“  We  are  always  working  far  ahead.  If  the  suggestions 
at  the  tryout  demonstrate  that  the  model  will  be  much 
more  valuable  with  changes  or  improvements,  we  call  in 
all  of  the  models,  make  the  improvements,  and  then  send 
them  out  again  to  be  tried.  And  we  keep  up  this  process 
until  every  mechanical  defect  has  been  overcome  and  the 
model  includes  every  feasible  suggestion. 

“We  take  pains  to  be  ready.  We  cannot  know  every¬ 
thing;  we  cannot  always  be  certain  that  developments  of 
business  will  follow  the  lines  that  we  map  out.  But  no 
matter  what  the  situation,  we  have  something  in  hand  to 
meet  it  or  adapt  to  it.  We  work  on  the  plan : 4  The  secret  of 
success  in  life  is  for  a  man  to  be  ready  for  opportunity 
when  it  comes.’” 

The  same  spirit  that  brought  about  the  development  of 
the  Inventions  Department  went  through  every  phase  of 
factory  activity.  Mr.  Patterson  was  not  a  manufacturer 
in  that  he  had  little  interest  in  processes  or  materials.  His 
whole  interest  was  in  men.  He  and  his  brother  Frank  had 
charge  of  the  factory  but  John  H.  was  never  skilled  in 
mechanics.  He  thought  more  of  stimulating  production, 
and  only  when  the  production  fell  off  or  was  bad  did  he 
try  to  get  at  the  details.  It  is  characteristic  of  him  that 
he  installed  a  big  wooden  register  inside  the  door  of  the 
new  factory  to  show  the  production. 

He  preferred  to  have  the  factory  work  from  models 
instead  of  from  drawings.  When  a  register  went  wrong 
in  service,  he  would  have  a  big  wooden  model  made  to 
show  the  trouble.  This  system  obtained  for  many  years 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE 


177 


and  was  given  up  by  Mr.  Patterson  only  after  a  deal  of 
pressure  had  been  brought  upon  him.  The  rule-of-thumb 
methods  developed  some  queer  ideas.  There  was  no 
testing  department  and  materials  were  bought  on  the 
notions  of  the  foremen  or  superintendents — as  was  usual 
in  those  days — and  so  the  best-fitted  materials  were  not 
always  obtained.  The  old  registers  had  springs;  these 
springs,  not  being  made  out  of  suitable  steel,  gave  trouble. 
It  was  decided  to  abolish  springs  and  for  a  time  none  of 
the  registers  had  springs  in  them.  What  was  known  as 
the  “anti-spring”  crowd  grew  up  in  the  factory.  The 
registers  needed  springs,  but  it  was  not  until  C.  F.  Ketter¬ 
ing — one  of  the  inventors  of  the  Delco  System  and  at 
present  in  charge  of  research  for  the  General  Motors 
Corporation — proved  that  the  fault  was  with  the  material 
in  the  springs  that  the  registers  were  again  equipped  with 
them.  That  was  one  of  the  inside  battles  of  the  company 
in  which  Mr.  Patterson  had  little  part.  Later,  of  course,  ex¬ 
tensive  testing  and  research  laboratories  were  started,  but 
for  a  long  time  Mr.  Patterson  regarded  them  suspiciously 
for  he  could  not  see  the  results.  And  he  liked  to  see  things. 
His  method  of  getting  at  factory  trouble  is  well  brought 
out  in  the  following  incident  he  was  fond  of  telling: 

“I  had  the  attention  of  that  crowd  for  as  long  as  I 
wanted  it.  A  long  while  ago  the  question  was  up  in 
our  organization  of  making  interchangeable  parts  on  the 
registers.  I  had  all  the  foremen  and  superintendents  in  a 
meeting.  I  told  them  that  all  of  the  parts  had  to  be  inter¬ 
changeable  and  standardized;  the  plan  seems  simple 
enough  now,  but  at  that  time  standardization  was  prac¬ 
tically  unknown — our  mechanics  were  not  used  to  close 
work  and  the  machinery  was  not  as  accurate  as  it  is 
to-day.  The  ‘practical  men’  opposed  me. 


178 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“I  asked  for  opinions  until  finally  nearly  everyone  in 
the  room  had  spoken.  I  waited — I  always  like  to  have 
the  other  fellow  bring  up  all  the  objections  first.  When 
they  had  done,  I  said: 

“‘Those  who  feel  that  we  cannot  make  to  a  standard, 
step  to  this  side  of  the  room.’ 

“All  but  three  of  the  men  took  their  places  in  the  oppo¬ 
sition.  Then  I  spoke  to  the  three: 

“‘You  have  made  one  machine  that  works  right,  then 
go  ahead  and  make  another.  If  you  made  one,  you  can 
make  more.  Anything  that  can  be  made  by  hand  can 
be  made  by  machinery  As  for  you  fellows/  speaking 
now  to  the  insurgents,  ‘you  find  out  how  to  do  it  or  look 
for  other  jobs/ 

“That  was  twenty-five  years  ago;  without  inter¬ 
changeable  parts  the  cash-register  business  would  have 
broken .” 

Or  again: 

“The  lack  of  a  boy  and  a  barrel  once  prevented  us  from 
getting  out  ten  registers  a  day.  We  found  that  not 
enough  registers  were  coming  through  the  factory.  We 
traced  the  matter  backward,  and  found  that  none  had 
been  shipped  because  none  had  been  tested;  none  had 
been  tested  because  none  were  assembled;  none  could  be 
assembled  because  there  were  no  indicators ;  there  were  no 
indicators  because  the  Indicator  Room  did  not  have  any 
dipped,  and  none  had  been  dipped  because  the  boys  in 
the  Dipping  Room  had  not  time  to  get  that  kind  out. 
They  lacked  a  boy  and  an  empty  barrel.  They  thought 
they  could  save  a  boy  and  an  empty  barrel.  They  did 
so,  and  not  only  caused  us  to  fall  behind  orders,  but  to 
fail  to  get  out  ten  registers  a  day.  We  put  on  the  boy 
and  the  barrel  in  two  minutes  after  we  found  it  out,  and 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE  179 

increased  the  shipments  ten  registers  daily,  without  em¬ 
ploying  another  person  in  the  factory.” 

The  production  in  1890  was  9,091;  in  1892  it  rose  to 
15,008;  and  with  the  drive  for  business  in  the  Panic  of 

1893  to  15,487.  This  made  another  building  imperative, 
and  in  spite  of  the  panic  Mr.  Patterson  went  ahead  in 

1894  with  another  building.  He  needed  the  building,  he 
saw  that  materials  and  labour  were  at  the  low  point  and, 
although  he  did  not  have  the  funds,  he  went  ahead  with 
the  building  which  was  completed  in  1896.  This  involved 
him  in  his  first  large-scale  financial  trouble — but  it  was 
also  the  means  of  getting  him  on  his  feet  in  due  time 
through  the  obtaining  of  skilled  financial  advice.  And 
also,  because  of  circumstances  growing  out  of  this  loan, 
Mr.  Patterson  almost  lost  control  of  the  company. 

The  business  was  growing  all  the  time  and  required  all 
the  profits  for  capital  purposes,  yet  all  the  profits  could 
not  be  so  used,  for  the  greater  part  of  them  was  tied 
up  in  customers’  notes.  It  is  hard  enough  to  finance  a 
rapidly  growing  business  entirely  on  profits  without  having 
the  additional  handicap  of  payments  being  deferred. 
What  with  the  agents’  commissions,  the  advertising,  and 
the  cost  of  manufacturing,  each  sale  of  a  register  actually 
required  an  expenditure  by  the  company.  When  all  the 
registers  were  of  about  the  same  price  the  notes  falling 
due  fairly  took  care  of  the  expenditures,  but  in  these  years 
the  registers  began  to  increase  sharply  in  price  owing  to 
the  many  improvements.  The  business  required  more 
money  than  even  the  large  production  figures  would 
indicate,  for  it  had  to  bridge  the  gap  between  the  low-price 
and  the  high-price  machines.  The  new  building  further 
cut  into  the  company’s  cash;  the  company  statement 
showed  plenty  of  assets  but  little  cash. 


180 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Mr.  Patterson  knew  nothing  of  finance;  he  did  not  know 
how  to  borrow  money,  and,  in  fact,  had  never  tried  to 
borrow  any  outside  of  Dayton — and  he  already  had  the 
limit  of  the  Dayton  banks.  They  did  not  particularly 
help  him,  for  Mr.  Patterson  was  not  popular  with  the 
Dayton  business  men;  he  had  already  launched  his  pro¬ 
gramme  of  welfare  work  and  was  doing  things  which  the 
business  men  of  the  section  did  not  approve  of.  It  is 
hard  to  realize  that  he  was  considered  a  somewhat 
dangerous  and  certainly  an  unstable  citizen.  The  only 
financing  Mr.  Patterson  had  known  about  had  been  in 
connection  with  the  Southern  Coal  and  Iron  Company 
in  Boston — which  had  been  most  unsatisfactory.  He 
knew  people  in  Boston;  Mrs.  Patterson  had  lived  in 
Brookline.  And  to  Boston  he  went  for  money — because 
he  knew  of  no  other  place  to  go.  He  got  in  touch,  through 
a  note  broker,  with  Joseph  Banigan  of  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  a  very  wealthy  man  and  the  head  of  the  largest 
rubber-manufacturing  company  in  the  country.  He  was 
also  something  of  a  money  lender — that  is,  he  would  take 
a  chance  if  the  profits  seemed  worth  while.  He  had  been 
to  Dayton  and  knew  something  of  the  N.  C.  R.  business. 
In  December,  1895,  Mr.  Patterson  called  on  him  and 
after  some  parley  borrowed  $10,000  for  four  months  at 
7  per  cent.,  pledging  for  the  first  time  a  quantity  of  cus¬ 
tomers’  notes.  It  was  a  poor  bit  of  borrowing;  the 
amount  was  only  a  fraction  of  what  the  company  needed. 
There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  Mr.  Banigan  knew 
this,  for  he  was  an  expert  financier.  There  is  a  suspicion 
that  Mr.  Banigan  loaned  the  small  sum  because  he  knew 
Mr.  Patterson  would  have  to  come  back  for  more  and  that 
in  the  end  he  might  acquire  an  interest  in  the  company — 
which  he  thought  had  a  great  future. 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE 


181 


Mr.  Patterson  thought  only  of  the  money  that  he 
needed  for  the  moment.  The  loan  was  duly  paid  in 
April,  1896.  By  that  time  Building  No.  2  had  been  paid 
for  at  the  expense  of  working  capital  and  the  company 
needed  still  another  building.  The  sales  of  1896  were  in 
excess  of  16,000  and  for  1897  promised  to  be  still  larger — 
they  actually  amounted  to  23,057.  Hardly  had  the  note 
been  paid  than  Mr.  Patterson  was  back  with  Mr.  Banigan 
asking  for  a  bigger  loan — although  not  yet  enough  for  his 
real  needs.  He  borrowed  $200,000  and  the  Board  of 
Directors  on  May  6,  1896,  authorized  a  contract  between 
the  company  and  Banigan.  The  contract  provided 
that  the  money  should  be  advanced  in  instalments  of 
$50,000  each  through  four  months  and  that  two  years’ 
interest  at  7  per  cent,  should  be  deducted  in  advance. 
The  notes  had  to  be  endorsed  by  John  H.  and  Frank  J. 
Patterson  and  all  the  receivables  of  the  company  were 
pledged  as  collateral,  with  the  further  provision  that  these 
receivables  should  never  be  less  in  amount  than  $350,000 
— the  company  could  withdraw  receivables  as  they  became 
due,  provided  others  of  like  amounts  were  substituted. 
The  company  pledged  to  do  all  its  borrowing  through 
Banigan  for  a  period  and  actually  pledged  $630,000  in¬ 
stead  of  $350,000  in  customers’  notes. 

This  was  only  the  beginning  of  the  borrowing.  Up 
until  the  beginning  of  1899  the  company  in  all  borrowed 
from  Joseph  Banigan  and  from  John  J.  Banigan,  who  suc¬ 
ceeded  him,  a  total  of  $760,000  of  which  $375,000  was 
for  renewals,  making  a  net  borrowing  of  $385,000.  Only 
one  of  the  original  $50,000  notes  was  paid  at  maturity 
and  the  company  had  a  hard  struggle  to  do  even  that  for 
the  business  kept  expanding  and  requiring  more  money. 
The  rate  of  interest  on  the  renewals  was  8  per  cent.,  and 


182 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


the  company  paid  $71,955.83  in  interest  to  the  Banigans 
during  the  period.  After  the  death  of  Joseph  Banigan 
came  the  most  critical  period — for  the  executors  wanted 
payments.  There  is  some  interesting  correspondence 
during  the  period. 

Dayton,  Ohio,  January  25,  1898. 

Mr.  John  H.  Patterson, 

Hotel  Waldorf, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

Dear  Sir: 

Mr.  Shepherd  will  forward  to  you  to-day  the  Banigan  contracts 
which  have  been  signed  by  Mr.  Pflum  and  the  writer;  and  I  have 
requested  Mr.  Shepherd  to  inclose  this  letter  with  his  to  you. 

In  reading  over  the  contract  the  several  objections  enumerated 
below  occurred  to  me,  to  all  of  which  we  ought  to  give  most  careful 
consideration  before  signing  the  contract.  These  objections  are 
not  new,  but  in  some  respects  they  strike  me  more  forcibly  than  they 
did  before: 

1st: — The  necessity  of  showing  in  each  January  hereafter  an 
equally  good  condition  as  now  or  no  renewals  will  be  granted. 

2nd : — Renewals  will  be  granted  in  the  future  only  upon  the  condi¬ 
tion  that  we  pay  off  $50,000.00  yearly,  beginning  in  1899. 

3rd: — All  the  notes  now  in  the  vault  and  all  that  may  accumulate 
in  the  future,  no  matter  how  large  the  amount  may  become,  are 
pledged  to  Mr.  Banigan  as  a  collateral  security. 

4th: — The  contract  is  so  worded  that  if  by  oversight  or  otherwise 
we  should  fail  to  pay  the  interest  on  any  note  on  that  day  it  is  due, 
then  all  the  notes  outstanding  at  such  time  become  due  and  payable 
and  Mr.  Banigan  has  the  option  to  sell  all  the  notes  accumulated  in 
the  vault  at  such  time.  The  contract  should  provide  as  a  safeguard 
to  us  the  above  could  be  done  only  after  our  failure  to  make  good 
such  defaulted  payment  after  receiving  a  notice  from  Mr.  Banigan 
of  such  default. 

5th: — The  seriousness  of  indorsing  all  the  notes  in  the  vault  making 
them  payable  to  bearer,  on  account  of  the  amount  of  these  notes 


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THE  ATTRACTIVE  VISTA  FROM  THE  OLD  ELM  TREE 
Of  the  N.  C.  R.  Co.’s  factory  grounds,  indicating  how  the  surroundings  of  the  employees  have  been  beautified 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE  183 

constantly  increasing, — and  this  process  is  to  go  on  so  long  as  we 
owe  Mr.  Banigan  a  dollar  during  the  whole  life  of  the  contract. 

The  less  we  owre  Mr.  Banigan  by  paying  off  the  yearly  sum  of 
$50,000.00  as  stated  in  the  contract,  the  greater  the  collateral  security 
will  become  so  that  we  may  eventually  hold  here  in  the  vault  a  million 
and  a  half  of  notes  all  pledged  to  Mr.  Banigan  for,  say,  a  $100,000.00 
debt;  and  still  at  such  times  as  we  would  be  unable  to  borrow  any 
money  for  any  purpose  except  through  Mr.  Banigan  at  8  per  cent, 
with  all  notes  then  on  hand  pledged  as  collateral  security. 

6th : — The  option  to  Mr.  Banigan  is  so  wrorded  that  if  he  desires  we 
can  never  borrow  any  money  even  for  the  purpose  of  paying  him 
off,  because  we  are  bound  by  this  contract  to  give  him  the  first  option 
of  loaning  to  us  all  the  money  we  borrow  in  the  future;  and  we  agree 
in  this  contract  not  only  to  give  him  the  first  option,  but  that  the 
conditions  of  such  future  loans  shall  be  8  per  cent,  interest  with 
J.  H.  Patterson’s  and  F.  J.  Patterson’s  endorsement,  and  all  notes 
pledged  as  collateral;  so  that,  by  this  contract,  we  are  tied  to  Mr. 
Banigan  (if  he  chooses)  for  all  the  time  we  owe  him  any  sum  of  money 
at  8  per  cent,  interest.  The  only  way  left  open  to  untie  ourselves 
from  him  is  to  pay  all  of  the  indebtedness  out  of  the  cash  savings. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  these  thoughts  have  occurred  to  you  before 
this,  and  I  do  not  know  that  there  is  any  remedy,  and  I  have  enumer¬ 
ated  them  in  the  above  manner  just  because  I  have  signed  the  con¬ 
tract  in  advance  of  you  having  done  so. 

Yours  truly, 

(Signed)  H.  Theobald,  Jr. 

Providence,  R.  I.,  July  22,  1898. 


Mr.  George  E.  Shepherd,  Treas. 

Dear  Sir: — 

Your  note  of  $50,000  falls  due  August  20th.  We  write  you  this 
early,  as  we  had  the  note  discounted  some  time  ago,  and  as  Mr. 
Banigan’s  condition  is  becoming  serious,  in  fact,  so  much  that  his 
death  may  be  looked  for,  we  will  probably  not  be  in  condition  to  take 
up  the  note  before  maturity.  In  the  event  of  his  death  his  affairs 
will  of  course  be  tied  up  temporarily  awaiting  the  appointment  of 
executors,  and  should  your  note  mature  during  that  time,  we  could 


184 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


perhaps  prevent  its  being  protested.  Kindly  advise  us  what  you 
think  you  will  be  able  to  do  in  the  matter  and  oblige. 

Yours  respectfully, 

(Signed)  John  J.  Connly, 
Private  Sec’y- 

July  25,  1898. 

Mr.  John  H.  Patterson, 

Waldorf-Astoria  Hotel, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

Dear  Sir: — 

Enclosed  is  a  copy  of  a  letter  we  received  to-day  from  Mr.  John 
J.  Connly.  We  have  also  sent  a  copy  of  the  letter  to  Mr.  Shepherd  at 
Providence,  where  we  understand  he  will  be  soon.  We  also  sent  a 
copy  of  this  letter  to  you  at  Boston,  so  you  will  sure  get  it  at  one  place 
or  the  other. 

We  have  not  replied  to  Mr.  Connly’s  letter,  leaving  that  for  you  or 
Mr.  Shepherd  to  do  in  person.  Mr.  Connly  should  arrange  for  the 
renewal  of  the  note,  according  to  our  agreement  with  Mr.  Banigan. 
If,  however,  it  should  be  impossible  for  him  to  renew  the  note,  then 
he  should  grant  us  the  privilege  of  borrowing  elsewhere,  by  either 
altering  our  present  contract  or  giving  a  new  contract  covering  this 
one  point.  We  hope  the  matter  may  be  satisfactorily  arranged. 

We  have  inclosed  in  the  letter  to  Mr.  Shepherd,  addressed  to 
Providence  in  care  of  our  agent  there,  a  copy  of  the  Banigan  con¬ 
tract. 

Yours  truly, 

(Signed)  H.  Theobald,  Jr. 

July  29,  1898. 

Mr.  John  H.  Patterson, 

Boston,  Mass. 

Dear  Sir: — 

We  were  advised  yesterday  by  telegrams,  one  from  Mr.  Beck  and 
the  other  from  Mr.  Lauver,  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Banigan. 

This  of  course  makes  it  absolutely  necessary  for  you  to  see  Mr. 
Connly,  as  indicated  in  our  letter  of  July  25,  to  arrange  for  the  han¬ 
dling  of  the  note  for  $50,000  which  will  fall  due  August  20. 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE 


185 


This  strikes  us  as  a  favorable  opportunity  to  get  the  contract 
changed.  If  it  is  true,  as  Mr.  Connly  states,  they  will  be  unable  to 
renew  the  note,  then  the  executors  certainly  cannot  refuse  consist¬ 
ently  to  borrow  somewhere  else.  Perhaps  this  might  be  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  get  all  of  the  objectionable  features  removed  from  the 
contract. 

By  the  way,  on  July  22nd  we  addressed  you  at  the  Waldorf  Hotel 
a  letter  about  this  business,  and  I  have  just  learned  to-day  that  the 
letter  was  returned  here  undelivered  a  few  days  ago,  but  that  it  was 
reforwarded  on  July  27th.  Fearing  that  possibly  you  may  never 
have  received  it,  we  inclose  a  copy  of  the  letter  in  question. 

Yours  truly, 
(Signed)  H.  Theobald,  Jr. 

Mr.  Patterson  was  ill  and  away  from  Dayton  a  good 
part  of  this  time;  probably  worry  over  the  notes  was  the 
chief  cause  of  his  trouble,  for  with  the  endorsements  of  his 
brother  Frank  and  himself  the  notes  bound  up  the  en¬ 
tirety  of  the  company  and  his  own  property — although 
his  own  property  consisted  almost  wholly  of  the  N.  C.  R. 
stock. 

He  happened  to  be  introduced  to  A.  C.  Ratshesky,  a 
young  Boston  banker  who  had  founded  the  United  States 
Trust  Company  in  Boston  and  who  was  an  exceedingly 
keen  man.  Mr.  Patterson  had  never  had  skilled  financial 
counsel;  he  went  over  his  affairs  with  Mr.  Ratshesky  and 
then  Mr.  Ratshesky  made  a  trip  to  Dayton  and  did  some 
investigating  on  his  own  account.  He  found  that  the 
company  was  extremely  rich  in  assets  and  ought  to  have 
a  fine  future  but  that  it  had  no  financial  connections  of 
moment  and  was  woefully  short  of  working  capital.  Over 
all  were  hanging  the  Banigan  notes.  The  first  thing  was 
to  get  rid  of  the  notes  and  this  was  done  by  an  issue  of 
preferred  stock,  bearing  7  per  cent,  interest,  to  the 
amount  of  $1,000,000.  The  Banigans  agreed  to  float 


186 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


$600,000  of  this  stock  at  par,  although  on  the  side  they 
received  a  commission  of  three  dollars  a  share.  The  state 
of  the  company’s  finances  is  well  shown  by  a  report  of  the 
treasurer  dated  31st  July,  1899: 

The  sales  for  the  first  six  months  of  1899  were  $651,978.10  in 
excess  of  the  sales  for  the  first  six  months  of  1898 — the  increase  being 
46  per  cent.  Owing  to  the  rapid  increase  of  business  we  are  com¬ 
pelled  to  pay  out  money  for  material,  labour,  commissions,  and  vari¬ 
ous  other  necessary  expenses  faster  than  we  receive  it,  as  the  average 
time  of  receiving  payment  for  our  machines  is  six  months  after  ship¬ 
ment.  Consequently,  in  order  to  carry  this  increased  business,  we 
have  already  been  compelled  to  use  $100,000  of  the  $800,000  re¬ 
ceived  from  the  sale  of  Preferred  Stock,  in  addition  to  the  receipts  from 
sales.  Out  of  the  money  received  from  the  sale  of  Preferred  Stock 
we  had  arranged  to  pay  the  Banigan  notes  amounting  to  $325,000, 
erect  the  new  building,  add  two  stories  to  Machinery  Hall,  and  make 
other  needed  improvements,  costing  $225,000  and  purchase  necessary 
real  estate  amounting  to  $14,000.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  we  have 
already  used  and  arranged  to  use  $664,000  more  than  immediate 
receipts  from  sales  will  give  us.  As  this  is  considerably  in  excess  of 
the  amount  we  will  receive  from  the  sale  of  Preferred  Stock,  and  as 
there  is  every  indication  that  our  business  will  continue  to  increase 
and  money  be  required  faster  than  it  can  be  collected  on  outstanding 
notes  and  accounts,  I  am  compelled  to  call  upon  the  Company  for 
additional  capital. 

On  April  9,  1900,  the  remaining  $200,000  of  preferred 
stock  was  sold. 

The  laws  of  Ohio  did  not  permit  an  issue  of  preferred 
stock  bearing  more  than  6  per  cent,  so  the  company  took 
out  a  New  Jersey  charter.  Eventually  the  incorporation 
was  returned  to  Ohio  and  the  capitalization,  increased 
to  $10,000,000,  divided  into  $1,000,000  preferred  and 
$9,000,000  common.  Practically  all  of  the  common  stock 
was  held  by  John  H.  Patterson  and  his  brother  Frank. 


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FACTORY  AND  FINANCE 


187 


On  the  death  of  Frank  his  stock  went  to  his  widow  with 
the  exception  of  a  block  that  he  bequeathed  to  Robert 
Patterson,  his  nephew. 

With  the  Banigan  notes  out  of  the  way  and  the  prohibi¬ 
tion  against  borrowing  lifted,  Mr.  Ratshesky  began  to 
build  up  a  credit  for  the  N.  C.  R.  He  took  promissory 
notes  for  his  own  bank  and  also  he  sold  notes  to  other 
banks.  Often  he  had  the  company  borrow  when  it  did 
not  need  the  money,  just  in  order  to  be  able  to  make 
offers  to  buy  back  the  notes  before  their  due  dates.  He 
also  had  Mr.  Patterson  always  buy  up  his  notes  when 
money  was  hard  to  borrow — not  because  it  was  good  busi¬ 
ness  but  for  the  moral  effect  on  the  banks.  It  gives  a 
notion  of  vast  stability  to  have  a  concern  out  in  the  market 
trying  to  retire  its  notes  when  most  other  concerns  are 
out  trying  to  get  money.  Working  slowly  and  carefully, 
Mr.  Ratshesky  built  up  for  the  N.  C.  R.  the  bank  credit 
to  which  it  was  entitled.  N.  C.  R.  notes  became  staples, 
and  thereafter  the  company  was  never  pinched  for 
money. 

The  preferred  stock,  through  some  accident,  or  possibly 
at  the  direction  of  Banigan,  contained  a  voting  clause. 
This  was  unknown  to  Mr.  Patterson  until  some  years 
later,  after  the  death  of  Frank  Patterson.  John  H.  had 
a  majority  of  the  common;  he  did  not  have  a  majority 
with  the  preferred  voting  and  he  owned  no  preferred. 
He  discovered  an  attempt  under  way  to  buy  up  enough 
of  the  preferred  to  take  the  company  control  from  him. 
At  once  he  consulted  Mr.  Ratshesky;  the  stock  was 
scattered  about  New  England  in  small  blocks.  Mr. 
Patterson  gave  Mr.  Ratshesky  full  power  to  buy  the  stock 
at  any  price  and  in  a  little  while  Mr.  Ratshesky  had 
picked  up  enough  of  it  to  put  the  control  of  the  company 


188 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


back  again  into  Mr.  Patterson’s  hands.  Had  the  scheme 
gone  through,  Mr.  Patterson  would  have  been  ousted 
from  control.  But  he  nipped  the  plan.  This  was  one 
of  the  most  intense  periods  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  life,  for  he 
saw  the  control  of  all  his  work  going  away  from  him.  At 
times  he  was  almost  frantic. 

It  was  Building  No.  3  that  went  up  during  this  critical 
period.  All  the  N.  C.  R.  buildings  were  put  up  in  a  hurry 
— Mr.  Patterson  could  never  wait  for  anything  and  also 
all  of  them  were  different  from  other  factory  buildings  of 
the  time.  On  No.  3  he  put  his  favourite  inscription: 

“We  are  a  part  of  all  we  have  met.” 

“Our  people  don’t  know  just  what  that  means,”  he 
said,  “but  the  more  they  study  it  the  more  they  will  see 
in  it.  Then  I  remembered  that  Bishop  Potter  said :  4  This 
new  improved  machinery  is  throwing  men  out  of  em¬ 
ployment.’  I  wanted  something  that  would  counteract  the 
Bishop’s  statement,  so  we  chose  this  motto,  ‘Improved 
machinery  makes  men  dear  and  their  product  cheap.’” 

Most  of  the  N.  C.  R.  buildings  were  put  up  in  record 
time.  Mr.  Patterson  always  saw  the  company  losing 
money  for  lack  of  manufacturing  facilities  and  rushed 
the  work.  Take  Building  No.  4.  This  is  his  story: 

“We  needed  that  building  very  much.  We  were  losing 
money  every  day  because  we  did  not  have  it.  So  I  went 
down  to  see  if  everything  was  being  done  that  could  be 
done.  The  contractor  said: 

“‘Yes,  we  are  pushing  it  along  as  fast  as  we  can.’ 

“We  had  just  come  back  from  New  York,  where  they 
were  building  the  Flatiron  Building,  and  that  gave  us 
an  idea  of  how  to  do  things.  They  had  the  whole  building 
covered  with  bricklayers.  I  said  to  the  contractor: 

‘“Can’t  you  put  on  more  men?’ 


FACTORY  AND  FINANCE 


189 


“‘No,’  he  answered,  ‘we  can’t  get  them.  We’ll  catch 
the  steel  men  anyhow  before  they  get  the  building  up.’ 

“Then  I  went  up  to  the  steel  men  and  said  to  them: 

“‘You  will  have  to  hustle,  won’t  you?  The  brick  men 
say  they  will  soon  be  up  with  you.’ 

“The  steel  men  answered: 

“‘The  brick  men  will  never  catch  us.’ 

“So  I  said: 

“‘Let’s  make  them  hustle.  Let’s  put  up  a  race. 
Let’s  run  all  night.’ 

“‘Oh,’  the  steel  men  answered,  ‘we  can’t  put  up  steel 
at  night.  It’s  dangerous.  Men  will  step  on  shadows, 
and  we  don’t  want  any  man  killed.’ 

“I  sent  for  Reeves. 

“‘Reeves,  how  many  lights  can  you  put  up  there  so 
that  there  will  not  be  any  shadows?’ 

“‘Oh,  it  will  take  about  ten.’ 

“Then  the  steel  men  said: 

“  ‘If  you  are  going  to  do  that  way  we  can  rivet  at  night.’ 

“I  told  Reeves  to  raise  the  brick  men  five  cents  an  hour, 
to  give  them  luncheon,  to  give  them  supper,  and  advertise 
for  additional  men,  to  send  out  to  Springfield  to  get  men, 
and  to  get  them  anyway.  I  turned  to  the  stenographer: 

“‘Send  this  telegram  to  the  contractor  at  Chicago: 
“John  Smith:  We  are  going  to  extend  these  two  buildings 
and  want  you  to  bid  on  the  contract,  but  you  can’t  do 
it  because  you  have  incompetent  men  here.  Your  brick¬ 
layers  are  slow,  your  workmen  are  not  pushing.  Your 
steel  men  are  slowing  up.  You  come  here  to  put  things 
in  operation.  Come  to-morrow.  Very  important. 

“This  was  pretty  strong,  but  it  was  the  truth.  I 
wanted  the  building  covered  with  men.” 

Which  was  Mr.  Patterson’s  way  of  doing  things! 


CHAPTER  XII 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR 

A  S  WAS  noted  in  the  last  chapter,  Mr.  Patterson 
/  %  did  not  know  much  about  manufacturing  and  it 
X  jL  did  not  occur  to  him  that  a  factory  required 
special  attention.  He  had  done  many  unusual  things, 
but  he  had  not  conducted  his  factory  in  a  manner  dif¬ 
ferent  from  the  usual  run  of  factories.  In  1894  cash 
registers  began  to  come  back  from  Europe,  and  especially 
from  England.  They  would  not  add  correctly  and  had 
caused  many  clerks  falsely  to  be  accused  of  dishonesty. 
The  company  had  just  succeeded  in  building  up  a  fine 
foreign  business  and  home  business  was  booming.  The 
same  registers  had  gone  out  in  the  United  States,  but  their 
inaccuracy  had  been  caught  in  time  to  prevent  serious 
damage  to  the  company. 

The  registers  came  back  to  the  factory  in  groups — some 
fifty  thousand  dollars’  worth  of  them  altogether.  Mr. 
Patterson  had  from  time  to  time  investigated  evil  prac¬ 
tices  such  as  the  contract  system  which  had  crept  in, 
but  with  the  return  of  the  registers  he  moved  his  desk  into 
the  factory  and  started  a  clean  up  that  was  to  have  not 
only  factory-wide  but  nation-  and  world-wide  results. 
For  then  began  the  idea  of  the  modern  factory — a  place 
in  which  human  beings  might  work  in  the  greatest  com¬ 
fort,  with  entire  self-respect  and  with  the  highest  ef¬ 
ficiency.  The  old  idea  was  that  a  factory  was  just  a  place 
to  work  and  that  the  employees  were  “hands.” 

190 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR 


191 


He  had  several  years  before  established  the  duties  of  the 
officers  and  foremen,  in  what  I  believe  is  the  first  effort 
anywhere  toward  what  is  now  known  as  “job  analysis.” 
In  1889  he  issued  a  pamphlet  which,  among  other  di¬ 
rections,  contained  these: 

President. — It  is  the  duty  of  the  President  to  look  after  the  general 
management  of  the  business.  He  is  to  sign,  with  the  Secretary,  all 
orders  to  change  the  construction  of  registers,  and  all  orders  for 
experimental  work  on  registers.  To  examine  and  read  daily  the 
complaint  book  and  to  attend  to  the  duties  of  the  Vice-President 
during  his  absence. 

Vice-President. — It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Vice-President  to  sign 
all  checks;  to  notify  the  Superintendent  of  the  number  of  registers 
to  be  made  during  each  following  month,  and  to  have  general  super¬ 
intendence  of  all  manufacturing  departments.  He  is  to  attend  to 
the  duties  of  the  President  in  the  absence  of  that  officer. 

Secretary. — It  is  the  duty  of  the  Secretary  to  attend  to  the  receiv¬ 
ing  and  answering  of  all  general  correspondence.  He  is  to  sign,  in 
connection  with  the  President  or  Vice-President  and  General  Super¬ 
intendent,  for  changes  in  the  construction  of  registers,  and  to  have  a 
copy  of  such  orders  pasted  in  the  scrap  book  of  the  Superintendent, 
Purchasing  Agent,  Entry  Clerk,  Inspectors,  and  machine  room.  He 
is  to  sign  with  the  President  all  orders  to  the  General  Superintendent 
for  experimental  work  on  registers. 

Treasurer. — It  is  the  duty  of  the  Treasurer  to  attend  to  the  collec¬ 
tion  and  payment  of  all  moneys.  To  the  keeping  of  accounts  of  pur¬ 
chasers  and  bookkeeping  of  the  establishment. 

Purchasing  Agent. — It  is  the  duty  of  the  Purchasing  Agent  to  have 
charge  of  all  employees  in  his  department  and  to  ascertain  in  advance 
the  needs  of  and  to  contract  for  and  purchase  all  stock  and  supplies  for 
the  office  and  factory.  To  superintend  the  receiving  and  keeping  up 
of  stock,  and  to  keep  the  stock  in  order. 

Editor. — It  is  the  duty  of  the  Editor  to  have  charge  of  all  advertis¬ 
ing,  compiling  and  arranging  the  same;  also  the  mailing  of  same.  To 
edit  and  superintend  the  mailing  of  The  N.  C.  R.  and  Out-Puts. 
To  issue  or  endorse  all  orders  on  the  printing  department.  To  super¬ 
intend  the  receiving  and  sending  out  of  extra  supplies,  and  to  issue  to 


192 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


the  Treasurer  charges  for  the  same.  To  superintend  the  addressing 
of  Out-Put  envelopes  or  wrappers,  and  general  management  of  the 
department  doing  the  above  work  and  to  make  out  weekly  and 
monthly  reports  of  expense  of  manufacturing. 

Departments  had  gradually  been  added,  but  the  big 
change  was  that  from  a  mere  place  to  work  to  a  place 
where  human  beings  could  work. 

How  this  all  came  about  and  the  theories  which  he 
held  regarding  the  workingman  and  his  job  were  explained 
to  me  by  Mr.  Patterson,  two  years  before  he  died,  in  sub¬ 
stantially  this  fashion: 

“Labour  is  suspicious — and  has  a  right  to  be.  Gen¬ 
erally  speaking,  it  is  not  fairly  treated  and  it  has  not  been 
given  either  its  rightful  share  in  industry  or  its  propor¬ 
tion  of  income.  The  idea  has  been  to  get  everything 
that  is  to  be  had  out  of  a  man,  keep  him  down,  regulate 
his  wages  by  the  smallest  amount  he  will  take  and  not  by 
what  he  is  worth,  and  when  he  is  worn  out,  to  throw  him 
off  like  an  old  shoe. 

“Were  I  a  worker  for  wages,  I  should  be  deeply  sus¬ 
picious  of  my  employer  until  he  had  demonstrated  to  me 
that  he  was  willing  to  play  fair.  I  would  refuse  charity 
in  the  place  of  what  should  be  mine  by  right,  I  would  not 
take  kind  words  instead  of  money,  and,  generally  speaking, 
I  would  wait  to  be  shown. 

“I  think  such  is  the  right  and  proper  attitude  for  a 
workman.  He  has  the  welfare  of  himself  and  his  family 
as  a  first  consideration  and  he  would  be  a  fool  to  let  any 
one  grind  him  down.  I  have  no  respect  for  the  contented 
workman;  I  do  not  want  contented  workmen;  I  have  no 
respect  for  any  one  who  is  content  in  business,  for  that 
means  that  in  so  far  as  the  individual  is  concerned,  there 
can  be  no  further  progress. 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR 


193 


“The  satisfied  workman  is  another  matter.  He  is  the 
man  who  will  recognize  when  his  wages  and  conditions 
are  really  as  fair  as  they  can  be  made,  that  nothing  is 
being  withheld  from  him  that  should  be  his,  and  that  more 
money  and  a  higher  position  will  come  to  him  as  a  result 
of  his  own  effort — that  no  one  but  himself  will  block  his 
progress. 

“I  divide  workmen  into  three  classes: 

“1.  Those  with  enthusiasm,  loyalty,  and  intelligence; 
and  who  believe  in  the  company. 

“2.  Those  who  are  tolerably  enthusiastic,  loyal,  and 
intelligent;  but  who  do  not  believe  in  the  company’s 
methods. 

“3.  Those  who  believe  nothing,  who  deliberately  mis¬ 
construe  everything  that  is  done,  and  are  chronically  dis¬ 
satisfied. 

“The  first  is  the  ideal  class  and  the  backbone  of  any 
company;  the  second  class  can  be  educated;  the  third 
class  will  seldom  respond  to  anything,  for  its  members 
have  warped  natures. 

“When  first  I  began  my  work,  most  of  the  employees  of 
the  National  Cash  Register  Company  were  in  the  third 
class,  a  few  were  in  the  second  class,  while  the  first  class 
had  an  exclusive  membership.  None  had  any  enthu¬ 
siasm — but  I  do  not  now  see  why  they  should  have  had 
any.  Enthusiasm  is  the  biggest  asset  in  business.  It  is 
the  one  thing  that  you  have  to  work  eternally  to  keep 
up.  The  N.  C.  R.  was  built  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
organization  both  in  the  shops  and  in  the  field.  It  is  to 
the  stimulation  of  enthusiasm  that  most  of  our  work  is 
directed,  for  it  is  impossible  for  any  one  not  to  do  his  work 


194 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


well  if  he  takes  a  joy  in  its  doing.  I  have  found  that  a 
man  lacks  enthusiasm  when: 

“1.  He  has  not  an  appreciation  of  the  work  in  hand. 

“2.  He  is  out  of  sympathy  with  what  you  are  doing. 

“3.  He  lacks  knowledge  of  the  business  and  the  mo¬ 
tives  of  the  officers. 

“4.  He  is  not  in  harmony  with  his  surroundings. 

“5.  He  does  not  realize  his  obligations. 

“Therefore,  we  have  solved  the  labour  problem,  so 
called,  if  we  can  infuse  enthusiasm  into  all  the  various 
kinds  of  people  who  go  to  make  up  a  working  force.  It 
is  a  give-and-take  proposition  of  mutual  benefit  and 
mutual  responsibility.  I  have  no  solution  to  propose — 
there  are  no  solutions  as  yet.  But  I  have  learned  these 
big  points : 

“1.  Treat  people  well  and  they  will  treat  you  well. 
They  will  not  instantly  respond  but  they  will  in  the  long 
run.  Be  square  with  them. 

“2.  Do  not  try  to  take  any  advantage  and  do  not  try 
to  get  the  last  cent’s  worth  of  energy  out  of  them.  They 
will  give  you  their  best  if  they  think  you  are  giving  them 
your  best;  they  will  not  work  the  better  for  being  forced. 

“3.  It  pays  to  do  good;  it  pays  to  help  them  to  help 
themselves  in  every  moral  and  physical  way  and  also 
to  give  them  every  possible  opportunity  for  advancing  to 
higher  positions  and  more  money. 

“4.  The  basis  of  a  good  product  is  labour — workers 
who  go  forward  loyally  and  enthusiastically  as  a  team. 
Hence  it  is  necessary  to  let  the  workers  know  what  you 
are  trying  to  do  by  bringing  them  together  frequently  in 
meetings  in  which  the  ideas  and  ideals  of  the  business  can 
be  explained. 


RECEPTION  ROOM  AND  CLINIC  OF  THE  HEALTH  AND  HYGIENE  DEPARTMENT 


THE  NOON-HOUR  MEETING  AND  ENTERTAINMENT  AT  THE  N.  C.  R.  SCHOOLHOUSE 
During  each  lunch-hour  there  is  a  motion-picture  show  with  music,  the  entertainment  being  in  charge  of  the  Welfare  Department 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR 


195 


“5.  Let  every  worker  have  the  opportunity  to  make 
complaints  and  suggestions  for  betterments,  reward 
them  adequately,  and  make  it  impossible  for  a  man  to 
be  fired  on  account  of  a  personal  dispute  with  the  fore¬ 
man  or  other  subordinate. 

“6.  Extend  your  personal  acquaintance  with  the  men 
by  every  means  possible. 

“Such  are  the  principles  I  have  gradually  learned  in  my 
years  of  company  management,  and  they  are  about  as 
successful  as  is  possible  under  the  present  organization 
of  society.  They  are  not  successful  in  every  case  and 
they  do  not  secure  the  cooperation  of  every  man,  because 
— and  it  must  be  recognized — there  are  some  men  who 
will  not  be  fully  pleased  no  matter  what  you  do. 

“There  are  some  men  who  will  not  do  a  day’s  work  for 
a  day’s  pay,  but,  I  am  glad  to  say,  there  are  now  very  few 
such  among  our  normal  working  force  of  six  thousand. 
Constant  work  and  effort  have  brought  a  very  satis¬ 
factory  condition,  but  it  has  been  a  long,  hard,  uphill 
fight — a  fight  which  one  who  was  looking  for  gratitude 
would  quit.  Helping  men  to  help  themselves  is  not  a 
task  to  be  undertaken  by  any  one  who  is  not  content  to 
have  his  motives  misunderstood,  or  who  may  be  disturbed 
by  undeserved  censure.  The  sustaining  power  of  far- 
seeing  labour  direction  is  the  knowledge  that  you  are 
doing  good  and  that  your  business  is  not  going  forward 
over  the  dead  bodies  of  countless  workers.  The  other 
and  less  sustaining  motive  is  that  it  pays. 

“My  lessons  have  been  learned  through  bitter  expe¬ 
rience.  They  seem  simple  enough.  So  they  are  in  the 
stating,  but  they  are  complex  in  execution. 

“To  go  back,  when  we  began  business  few  employers 
considered  workmen  other  than  as  people  to  be  hired  at 


196 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


the  lowest  possible  wage,  worked  as  hard  as  they  could 
be  worked,  and  then  fired  when  any  one  felt  like  firing 
them.  It  did  not  make  much  difference  then  where  or 
how  the  men  or  women  worked,  because  it  did  not  seem  to 
have  occurred  to  any  one  that  in  the  shops  were  human 
beings  and  not  mere  machines  who  came  in  the  morning 
and  went  home  at  night.  I  say  that  was  the  general 
attitude  toward  labour.  I  do  not  recall  now  that  I  then 
thought  much  differently — or  perhaps  I  did  not  think  at 
all. 

“Then  I  got  my  lesson — an  unforgettable  one  that 
nearly  put  us  out  of  business.  It  was  worth  every  cent 
that  it  cost.  We  had  made  up  a  group  of  cash  registers 
to  sell  in  England.  It  was  our  first  large  export,  and  of 
course  the  adding  mechanism  had  to  be  somewhat  changed 
to  calculate  in  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence.  We  expected 
every  one  of  them  to  be  a  splendid  advertisement. 

“Every  register  in  that  lot  came  back  across  the  seas 
because  of  faulty  workmanship.  They  were  worth  $50,000, 
and  that  was  a  very  great  deal  of  money  to  us  in  those 
days.  It  was  a  big  shock — a  smashing  blow.  We  still 
have  those  registers;  we  have  them  in  a  pile,  surrounded 
by  glass,  locked  up  as  an  object  lesson  for  all  time. 

“Why  was  the  construction  so  bad?  It  was  all  in  the 
attitude  of  the  men.  They  had  no  heart  in  their  jobs, 
they  did  not  care  whether  they  turned  out  good  or  bad 
work.  Then  I  looked  further  into  conditions  and  I  had 
frankly  to  confess  to  myself  that  there  was  no  particular 
reason  why  they  should  put  heart  into  their  work. 

“I  moved  my  desk  from  the  office  right  out  to  the  fac¬ 
tory  floor.  I  had  determined  that  things  were  going  to  be 
made  right  and  I  wanted  to  discover  what  the  troubles 
were  by  living  with  them.  We  simply  had  to  make  that 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR 


197 


place  decent  to  work  in  or  go  out  of  business.  Given  a 
chance,  the  men  were  ready  enough  to  complain.  Their 
complaints  were  reasonable.  Here  are  a  few  character¬ 
istic  ones. 

“The  first  man  I  asked:  ‘What  is  the  trouble  with  this 
place?’  answered:  ‘It  is  too  dirty.’  ‘Very  well,’  I  re¬ 
plied,  ‘we  will  have  it  cleaned  to-night.’  And  we  did. 

“A  night  man  grumbled:  ‘We  have  to  wash  in  dirty 
water.  The  day  men  have  clean  water.’ 

“‘All  men  should  have  the  same  kind  of  water  to  wash 
in;  if  one  man  has  clean  water,  all  men  should  have  clean 
water,  if  one  man  has  dirty  water,  all  men  should  have 
dirty  water.  There  is  no  reason  why  all  should  not  have 
clean  water.  We  will  put  in  the  wash  basins  to-night.’ 
And  we  did  put  them  in  that  very  night,  although  I  had 
to  fight  to  have  it  done  and  stayed  there  most  of  the 
night. 

“Or  again:  ‘Jones  is  a  friend  of  the  foreman — he  has 
a  locker;  the  rest  of  us  haven’t  any  lockers.’ 

“‘Every  man  is  equal  here;  if  all  do  not  have  lockers 
none  shall — we  shall  all  have  lockers.’  We  got  lockers. 

“Having  put  in  lockers,  the  next  step  was  shower 
baths;  and  we  arranged  that  each  man  might  take  two 
baths  a  week  in  the  company’s  time.  This  was  particu¬ 
larly  appreciated  then  when  so  few  of  the  homes,  or  rather 
houses,  had  bathing  facilities. 

“The  condition  of  the  women  was  as  bad  as  that  of  the 
men.  The  girls  would  not  stay.  I  asked  one  who  was 
leaving  why  she  had  decided  to  quit.  She  said: 

“‘It’s  too  dark  and  dirty  and  cold  around  here.’ 

“The  rate  of  turnover  was  alarming — it  amounted  to 
a  procession.  But  I  could  not  blame  them;  they  were 
right:  it  was  no  fit  place  to  work  in.  So  we  began  to  im- 


198 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


prove  their  conditions,  doing  something  each  week.  First 
came  a  lunch  room  where  they  could  make  coffee  and  eat 
in  peace;  it  was  in  the  attic,  but  it  was  far  better  than 
eating  beside  a  machine.  Then  we  put  in  adjustable 
chairs  with  backs  in  the  place  of  the  uncomfortable  old 
stools  which  the  girls  had  been  using  at  work. 

“We  were  not  then  making  money  but  we  raised  all  of 
the  wages.  Sweeping  and  satisfactory  changes  could  not 
come  about  in  that  old  factory,  but  what  little  we  did 
there  aroused  intense  opposition.  I  had  first  to  fight  it 
out  with  my  associates  and  then  to  stand  the  jeers  of 
other  Dayton  employers.  They  asked:  ‘What  is  that 
fool  going  to  do  next?’  ‘Does  he  expect  to  make  ladies 
out  of  the  girls?’  ‘He  is  not  only  spoiling  labour  with 
pampering,  but  he  is  paying  25  or  50  cents  a  day  more 
than  they  are  worth.’ 

“They  called  me  ‘crazy’;  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  be 
called  ‘crazy’  many  times  during  my  life.  It  is  an  epithet 
which  I  prize  highly,  for  I  take  it  as  a  compliment  to  a 
vision  that  is  denied  to  many  unfortunates.  Remember 
that  we  had  then  done  very  little  toward  what  is  now 
called,  somewhat  unfortunately,  ‘welfare  work’;  to-day 
the  factory  which  did  not  have  at  least  what  we  then  had 
could  not  find  workmen  to  enter  it !  There  are  advantages 
in  being  crazy! 

“But  if  you  want  order,  you  must  first  put  things  in 
order.  We  needed  a  new  factory,  but  the  employment 
problem  appeared  to  me  bigger  than  simply  a  new  fac¬ 
tory;  it  seemed  necessary  to  revamp  the  whole  commun¬ 
ity.  This  was  impressed  on  me  by  a  man  whom  I  tried 
to  engage  for  a  fairly  important  executive  position.  He 
refused. 

“  ‘I  would  not  work  out  there  for  a  day  if  you  gave  me 


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II— HEALTHFUL  CONDITIONS  FOR  WORKERS 
At  the  left  is  an  exhaust  system  that  removes  dust  from  the  air  in  the  vicinity  of  the  workers 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR 


199 


the  whole  place.  There  is  nothing  to  do  after  hours  and 
there  is  no  place  to  live.  It  is  just  work,  work,  work.’ 

“  And  it  was.  Slidertown,  as  I  have  said,  was  a  very  un¬ 
desirable  residential  section  and  needed  a  complete  cleans¬ 
ing.  To  put  a  new  factory  in  such  surroundings  would 
have  been  like  sticking  a  pearl  pin  into  a  frayed  and  greasy 
cravat.  Personally,  I  felt  that  it  would  be  wisest  to  move 
to  another  city,  for  there  was  then  really  no  reason  why 
I  should  stay  in  Dayton  except  that  I  had  been  born  there 
and  the  site  of  my  father’s  farm  was  available  for  building. 
I  had  no  good  business  reason.  But  we  were  prevailed 
upon  to  stay — and  then  I  began  in  earnest  the  big  work 
of  which  I  am  very  proud. 

“First  came  a  new  factory.  I  wanted  a  lot  of  light; 
men  work  better  in  a  flood  of  light.  I  asked  the  architect 
to  design  a  building  that  would  be  nearly  all  glass — in 
which  the  walls  would  be  little  more  than  frames  for  the 
glass.  He  said  that  it  could  not  be  done;  the  building 
would  not  be  strong  enough  and,  even  if  it  were,  the  big 
glass  surface  would  forbid  heating.  I  told  him  to  go 
ahead  anyway  and  if  he  could  not  make  the  design,  I 
would  try  to  find  someone  else  who  could.  Again  they 
called  me  crazy.  But  the  building  went  up  with  what 
was  then  an  unheard-of  amount  of  glass.  We  had  no 
trouble  in  heating  it.  But  those  walls  were  solid  as 
compared  with  our  newest  structures,  which  have  80% 
glass.  And,  in  passing,  let  me  ask  if  any  one  builds  a 
poorly  lighted  factory  to-day? 

“In  the  new  building  it  became  possible  to  provide  ade¬ 
quate  space  for  each  employee  and  plenty  of  light.  We 
painted  all  the  machinery  a  light  colour,  arranged  hoods 
to  absorb  dust,  put  in  every  safety  device  that  could  be 
devised,  had  first-class  baths  and  locker  rooms,  rest  rooms 


200 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


for  the  women,  hospitals  and  first-aid  stations,  medical 
inspections,  and  free,  clean  aprons  and  sleevelets  for  the 
women. 

“In  fact,  we  did  everything  that  we  could  discover  to 
make  the  conditions  of  work  as  comfortable  as  possible. 
In  the  subsequent  buildings  this  has  been  carried  much 
further  because  we  have  learned  through  experience,  and 
to-day  there  is  not  a  single  device  for  the  comfort  and 
safety  of  the  employees  that  we  have  not  tried.  We  take 
the  attitude  that  if  anything  more  can  be  done — not 
reasonably  done,  but  if  it  can  be  done  at  all — for  the  im¬ 
provement  of  comfort  or  safety,  we  will  do  it. 

“A  new  Slidertown  came  about  through  suggestion. 
As  an  example  to  the  neighbourhood  I  arranged  flower 
beds  and  shrubs  around  the  factory  building,  sodded  the 
ground,  and  put  in  neat  walks.  The  youngsters  of  the 
neighbourhood  bore  a  bad  reputation — they  stoned  out 
the  windows  of  the  new  factory.  But  I  thought  I  could 
find  other  amusement  for  them. 

“The  boys  were  not  really  bad;  they  had  merely  been 
without  anything  useful  to  do.  So  we  prepared  a  large 
plot  of  ground  and  invited  the  boys  to  plant  gardens. 
We  gave  them  tools  and  seeds  and  put  a  gardener  in  charge 
to  show  them  what  to  do.  They  grew  splendid  gardens 
and  we  organized  the  first  garden  club  for  children  in  this 
country.  Now  they  have  a  corporation  of  their  own, 
which  they  manage  themselves  and  declare  dividends 
from  the  sale  of  their  joint  produce.  To  keep  them  oc¬ 
cupied  in  winter  we  started  the  Boys’  Box  Furniture 
Company,  another  self-governing  concern,  and  here  the 
children  learn  how  to  handle  tools;  they  market  their 
products  which  are  of  many  kinds  and  make  quite  a 
little  money. 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR 


201 


“The  example  of  the  factory  and  the  boys  wrought  a 
revolution  in  Slidertown.  The  old  houses  hid  among 
vines  and  their  yards  blossomed  with  flowers.  There 
came  new  houses  and  Slidertown  vanished;  instead  we 
now  have  South  Park — a  clean,  neat  suburb  filled  with 
good-looking,  comfortable  houses  in  which  any  one  might 
live. 

“Men  and  women  work  better  when  they  have  self- 
respect;  the  first  step  toward  self-respect  is  decent  living 
and  working  conditions.  A  man  cannot  come  out  of  a 
hovel,  have  a  dirty  breakfast,  go  into  a  dark,  noisome 
factory,  and  then  do  a  good  day’s  work;  he  can  do  neither 
himself  nor  his  employer  justice  under  such  conditions. 
He  will  be  still  more  efficient  if,  added  to  self-respect,  is 
the  knowledge  that  he  is  on  the  way  to  a  better  job,  if  he 
has  something  to  stimulate  ambition  The  best  stimu¬ 
lation  is  knowledge,  not  merely  knowledge  of  work,  but 
general  knowledge  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  world  and 
what  people  outside  of  his  own  little  group  are  thinking 
about. 

“All  of  this  makes  for  better  citizens,  and  the  first 
requisite  of  a  good  workman  is  that  he  be  a  good  citizen. 
The  man  who  does  not  respect  his  country  will  not  put 
much  loyalty  or  enthusiasm  in  his  work. 

“Teaching  is  my  hobby  and  we  provide  the  means  to 
find  knowledge.  The  employees  have  to  go  to  some 
trouble  to  stop  learning.  It  takes  many  forms  and  di¬ 
rections.  First  we  have  the  big  building  known  as  the 
‘N.  C.  R.  Schoolhouse.  ’  During  each  lunch  hour  we 
have  here  a  motion -picture  show  with  music,  the  enter¬ 
tainment  being  in  charge  of  the  Welfare  Department. 
Those  who  care  to  do  so  may  bring  their  lunch  and  eat  it 
during  the  performance;  many  do  this,  while  others  take 


202  JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

their  lunch  in  the  company’s  dining  hall  and  then  hurry 
over. 

“In  the  dining  hall,  by  the  way,  they  get  a  meal  of  soup, 
meat,  vegetables,  and  dessert  for  35  cents  that  is  enough 
for  anyone  and  is  composed  of  the  best  quality  of  food  that 
money  can  buy.  Of  course  we  lose  money  on  this  as  well 
as  on  the  dining  room  in  the  office  building.  But  we  get 
the  loss  back  in  the  better  work  done. 

“In  addition  to  the  motion-picture  performance  we 
have  many  lectures  on  public  affairs.  For  instance,  I 
think  we  have  obtained  every  well-known  war  speaker, 
and  generally  we  select  speakers  with  the  idea  of  keeping 
the  men  in  line  with  the  best  outside  thought  of  the  day 
on  big  matters.  They  hear  these  lectures  in  company 
time  and  are  paid  just  as  though  they  were  working. 
Each  lecture  costs  us  about  $2,000  in  time  alone,  but  that 
loss  is  returned  in  increased  interest. 

“Then  there  is  the  library  furnished  with  all  the  cur¬ 
rent  periodicals  and  some  thousands  of  good  books;  the 
N.  C.  R.  City  Club  in  which  are  held  the  ‘owl  classes,’ 
a  night  school  for  such  employees  as  have  not  had  the 
chance  to  get  an  education  before  the  start  of  their  work¬ 
ing  days;  and  also  to  enable  those  who  desire  to  take  up 
some  special  line,  such  as  mechanical  drawing  or  account¬ 
ing. 

“We  subscribe  for  and  send  direct  to  many  of  the  em¬ 
ployees  the  best  magazines  and  metropolitan  newspapers. 
Men  should  not  be  shut  up  with  purely  local  and  domestic 
concerns;  they  ought  to  know  what  kind  of  a  world  they 
are  living  in.  Following  out  this  thought,  we  send  the 
foremen  and  sometimes  groups  of  workmen  to  conven¬ 
tions  and  on  trips  to  New  York.  They  pick  up  enough 
new  ideas  to  pay  several  times  the  cost  of  the  travelling. 


THE  REMODELLED  N.  C.  R.  SCHOOLHOUSE 

It  has  a  seating  capacity  of  2,300  and  contains  a  large  stage,  a  pipe  organ,  complete  stereopticon  and  moving-picture  equipment,  spot¬ 
lights,  etc.,  etc. 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE  N.  C.  R.  CO. 
The  photograph  was  taken  during  the  noon  hour 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR 


203 


“And  on  these  trips  we  encourage  the  men  to  live  in 
first-class  style  and  to  spend  money.  It  is  really  surpris¬ 
ing  how  much  more  efficient  a  man  is  for  having  seen  some¬ 
thing  outside  of  his  own  home  town.  I  often  tell  the  men: 
‘Go  down  to  New  York,  buy  a  new  suit  of  clothes,  and 
get  some  of  the  hayseed  off  you !  ’ 

“The  most  comprehensive  plan,  however,  is  that  for 
the  education  of  apprentices,  which  can  only  be  sketched 
very  broadly  here;  it  is  a  whole  subject  in  itself.  I  am 
convinced  that  the  country  needs  all-round  mechanics 
who  are  also  all-round  men.  The  boys  who  must  start 
in  to  work  early  are  often  robbed  of  their  youth,  and  can¬ 
not  find  an  education  at  the  very  time  when  knowledge 
would  do  them  the  most  good,  therefore  arrangements 
were  made  with  the  Dayton  Cooperative  High  School  for 
continuation  classes  by  which  the  boys  from  sixteen  to 
eighteen  years  may  go  to  school  four  hours  per  week  and 
work  the  balance  of  the  week. 

“Following  the  grade  school  they  may  go  to  the  Dayton 
Cooperative  High  School,  attending  school  two  weeks 
and  working  in  the  factory  two  weeks  alternately.  Cin¬ 
cinnati  University  students  alternate  four  weeks  in  the 
university  and  four  weeks  in  the  factory.  At  the  end  of 
the  university  course  they  take  an  engineer’s  degree.  The 
apprentices  are  given  a  certificate  when  they  have  served 
their  time  and  I  personally  sign  each  one  of  these  certifi¬ 
cates;  the  term  is  three  years. 

“We  have  other  schools  for  teaching  adults  and  just 
now,  because  of  the  shortage  of  labour,  we  are  putting 
adult  unskilled  workers  through  a  part  of  the  apprentice 
course  and  paying  them  full  wages.  Even  though  many 
of  the  apprentices  start  out  for  themselves  at  the  end  of 
their  courses  instead  of  going  on  with  us,  we  do  not  feel 


£04 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


that  the  expense  of  their  education  is  lost,  for  any  one 
who  helps  to  provide  the  country  with  skilled  mechanics 
is  really  helping  himself  as  well  as  the  community. 

“The  hygiene  side  is  important;  it  is  good  for  a  man 
to  go  out  among  the  green  fields.  We  have  baseball 
diamonds,  a  large  number  of  tennis  courts,  quoit  court, 
several  community  clubs,  and  the  Old  Barn  Club,  which 
is  now  also  open  to  the  public;  and  for  many  years  we 
had  also  the  N.  C.  R.  Country  Club,  which  I  gave  to 
the  city  for  public  use  in  1918. 

“So,  instead  of  a  dirty  factory  in  a  dirty  town  where 
there  was  nothing  to  do  but  work,  we  now  have,  I  have 
been  told  by  many  people,  the  largest  opportunities  for 
clean,  healthy  work,  education,  and  physical  exercise  that 
are  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world. 

“Do  the  employees  like  the  changes?  At  first  they  did 
not  make  much  use  of  the  facilities,  but  now  they  do;  and 
I  find  that  they  are  steadily  growing  in  appreciation  since 
they  have  discovered  that  there  is  no  string  attached  to 
anything.  Only  time  will  show  men  that  you  say  what 
you  mean  and  mean  what  you  say.  One  of  my  assistants 
not  long  ago  met  the  wife  of  a  workman  who  had  left  to 
take  the  very  high  pay  offered  by  a  munition  factory — 
pay  which  was  out  of  all  reason  for  any  employer  not  en¬ 
gaged  in  rush  war  work.  He  asked  her  how  she  liked  the 
new  place.  She  answered: 

“ ‘There  is  nothing  there  but  a  lot  of  money.  We  have 
no  place  to  go,  no  parks,  no  flowers,  nothing  but  high 
wages.  We  are  coming  back.  ’ 

“Keeping  workmen  is  not  altogether  a  matter  of  wages, 
but  the  wages  are  of  the  highest  importance.  I  have  al¬ 
ways  believed  in  paying  men  well,  but  paying  them  on 
results.  Every  job  that  can  be  so  arranged  is  on  the 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR  205 

piece-work  basis;  we  encourage  the  making  of  the  highest 
possible  wages. 

“It  is  sometimes  said  that  I  oppose  labour  unions. 
That  is  not  true.  I  have  refused  to  run  other  than  an 
open  shop  for  the  single  reason  that  unions  prevented 
me  from  having  a  closed  shop.  Many  years  ago  the 
union  question  came  up  and  all  of  our  higher  executives, 
including  myself,  spent  the  greater  part  of  three  months 
in  almost  daily  conferences  with  representatives  of  the 
unions. 

“They  had  nothing  to  protest  about,  for  our  wages 
were  higher  than  the  union  rates  and  the  conditions  of 
labour  were  better  than  they  could  have  demanded  any¬ 
where.  But  a  restive  spirit  began.  The  men  objected 
to  petty  details — to  the  bread  in  the  dining  room  be¬ 
cause  it  was  not  union  made,  about  some  door  springs 
that  had  not  come  from  a  union  shop.  Always  they 
were  threatening  to  strike  over  nothing.  I  continued  the 
parleys  to  the  limit  of  my  patience. 

“They  threatened  to  strike  again.  Never  a  question 
of  wages  or  hours  had  been  raised.  Instead  of  letting 
them  strike,  I  struck.  At  three  o’clock  one  afternoon 
I  had  the  factory  whistle  blown  and  closed  down  the 
plant.  We  stayed  closed  until  the  workmen  sent  dele¬ 
gations  one  after  another  with  petitions  to  reopen.  We 
reopened  and  have  had  no  further  labour  trouble. 

“I  have  never  opposed  unions  as  such;  I  think  that, 
well  organized,  they  are  mighty  good  things.  The  work¬ 
man  needs  all  the  protection  that  he  can  get.  But  I  do 
think  that  they  should  confine  themselves  to  bettering 
conditions  rather  than  to  fomenting  strikes  for  trifles,  and 
I  think  that  to-day  the  big  labour  union  leaders  do  take 
this  broad  attitude. 


206 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“I  have  sketched  very  broadly  the  bigger  lessons  which 
I  find  are  at  the  base  of  labour  control,  but  I  have  not 
spoken  of  putting  over  the  plans  to  the  men.  Plans  may 
be  good  in  themselves,  but  no  one  has  the  full  benefit 
unless  he  understands  them.  The  complement  is  per¬ 
sonal  attention  and  contact,  and  this  we  get  through  our 
schoolhouse.  Every  little  while  we  all  get  together  there 
and  talk  things  over.  I  propose  all  new  plans  from  the 
platform  of  the  schoolhouse;  we  discuss  all  new  points  in 
meetings  with  the  aid  of  diagrams  and  charts.  I  hold 
that  frequent  meetings  between  a  president  and  his  men 
are  invaluable  if  all  are  to  work  on  the  same  lines  and  with 
the  enthusiasm  that  brooks  no  difficulties. 

“Does  it  pay?  All  through  the  shops  are  scattered 
signs  with  the  two  words  Tt  Pays.’  There  is  no  charity 
in  anything  we  do.  Isn’t  it  just  good  business  to  lose 
three  cents  on  a  girl’s  lunch  and  get  back  five  cents’  worth 
of  work?  And  so  on  throughout  the  whole.  It  is  not 
possible  to  reduce  it  all  to  a  profit-and-loss  account;  there 
cannot  be  an  exact  balance  sheet.  But  I  do  know  that 
our  labour  turnover  is  trivial  when  compared  with  most 
concerns  of  our  size,  and  that  careless  work  is  very 
rare. 

“These  are  two  of  the  most  important  elements  in  the 
success  of  the  business  and  they  are  not  capable  of  exact 
measurement.  Indeed  I  am  so  thoroughly  convinced 
that  it  pays  that  I  would  recommend  changes  to  keep 
labour  happy  no  matter  what  might  be  the  immediate 
effect  upon  our  business,  for  it  is  only  the  ultimate  effect 
that  counts. 

“It  all  comes  down  to  this:  In  our  farmhouse  my 
mother  nursed  the  hired  men  and  cared  for  them  just  as 
though  they  had  belonged  to  her;  she  felt  that  they  did. 


WELFARE  WORK  AND  LABOUR 


207 


They  came  to  feel  so,  too.  The  factory  has  now 
taken  the  place  of  the  old  farm,  but  the  methods  that 
were  a  success  on  the  farm  are  just  as  good  to-day  in 
the  factory.  Times  have  changed  but  human  nature 
has  not.” 


/ 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 

EVERYONE  who  came  in  contact  with  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson  or  who  has  seen  much  of  the  National 
Cash  Register  Company  must  have  noted  the  ex¬ 
traordinary  emphasis  placed  on  health,  hygiene,  and  the 
regular  ordering  of  human  affairs.  Very  few  know  any¬ 
thing  of  the  struggle  that  lay  behind  all  of  this — why  it 
was  that  Mr.  Patterson  put  health  first,  or  why  it  was  that 
he  was  for  ever  devising  means  to  help  the  individual  to 
master  self.  One  cannot  really  understand  this  whole 
attitude  toward  health  unless  first  one  understands  Mr. 
Patterson’s  view  of  the  purpose  of  life  and  then  of  his  own 
struggle. 

He  thought  of  the  body  purely  as  a  machine.  A  ma¬ 
chine  is  valuable  only  as  it  is  efficient.  Without  health 
the  human  body  cannot  be  efficient.  Therefore,  at  all 
costs,  one  had  to  have  health.  A  machine  is  an  instru¬ 
ment  of  destruction,  not  of  production,  unless  it  be  under 
full  control.  Therefore  he  wanted  a  man  to  be  in  full 
control  of  himself.  Everything  that  he  did  and  advo¬ 
cated  had  human  efficiency  as  its  end. 

He  really  did  not  know  what  pleasure  was.  He  did  not 
know  the  meaning  of  the  word  “recreation.”  He  thought 
of  pleasure  and  recreation  not  as  things  of  themselves  but 
as  aids  to  efficiency.  Probably  no  individual  ever  did 
as  much  as  Mr.  Patterson  toward  providing  for  the  pleas¬ 
ure  and  recreation  of  those  who  worked  with  him,  or 


208 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


209 


4 


who  lived  in  his  city,  or  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 
In  Hills  and  Dales  Park  he  provided  what  is  probably 
the  finest  of  all  pleasure  grounds.  He  wanted  everyone 
to  get  out  in  the  open  air  and  when  he  saw  the  land  about 
Dayton  being  taken  up  in  enclosed  estates,  when  he  saw 
“ No  Trespass  ”  signs  springing  up  like  dandelions,  he  threw 
open  this  great  tract  of  land  so  that  his  own  employees 
and  the  people  of  Dayton  might  always  have  green 
meadows  and  forests  to  play  in.  When  he  saw  expensive 
country  clubs  going  up,  he  put  up  a  country  club  of  his 
own  with  dues  so  slight  that  a  bootblack  could  pay  them 
without  effort. 

But  every  item  in  the  long  catalogue  of  the  things  that 
he  did  to  give  people  health  and  pleasure  was  conceived 
by  him  solely  to  the  end  that  the  people  might  make  better 
use  of  their  lives.  He  gave  the  impression  of  being 
purely  materialistic — for  he  talked  of  everything  that  he 
did  in  terms  of  material  results.  He  would  urge  a  man 
to  play  tennis  or  go  riding,  not  for  the  sport  of  the  thing, 
but  to  get  money-making  health.  But  to  think  of  Mr. 
Patterson  as  a  money-making  machine  trying  to  produce 
a  great  number  of  other  human  money-making  machines 
would  be  to  miss  the  truth. 

He  talked  in  terms  of  money  because  he  wanted  to  talk 
in  a  universal  language.  Money  is  the  one  subject  which 
needs  for  its  presentation  no  education  whatsoever.  The 
most  impassioned  oratory  fails  when  opposed  to  the  shining 
face  of  a  gold  piece.  That  is  human  nature.  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson  was  dealing  with  human  beings  as  they  existed 
and  not  with  hypothetical  human  beings. 

He  wanted  to  make  people  better.  He  was  an  in¬ 
veterate  reformer,  but  also  he  knew  that  the  catching 
of  the  hare  had  to  precede  the  cooking.  He  caught  with 


210 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


gold.  He  knew  how  useless  it  was  to  talk  of  cleanliness 
to  a  man  who  lived  in  a  hovel  without  a  bathtub.  And 
also  he  knew  that  cleanliness  as  an  abstract  subject  had 
no  great  moving  appeal.  But  if  he  could  show  that 
tubless  man  how  the  lack  of  bathing  interfered  with 
his  getting  many  things  that  he  wanted  much  more  than 
the  bathtub,  then  the  bathtub  became  important  as  a 
means  to  an  end.  So,  what  would  seem  to  be  a  complete 
materialism  and  an  over-emphasis  on  the  importance  of 
the  dollar  in  Mr.  Patterson’s  life  was  really  only  his 
method  of  presentation.  He  refused  to  fool  himself  into 
the  belief  that  spiritual  development  could  precede  eco¬ 
nomic  development — which  is  something  worth  thinking 
about. 

Mr.  Patterson  inherited  from  his  ancestors  a  constitu¬ 
tion  of  wiry  tenacity.  At  no  time  in  his  life  did  he  weigh 
much  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  and  he  was  five 
feet  eight  and  one  half  inches  tall.  He  was  never  husky, 
but  he  was  exceedingly  strong  and  lithe.  Few  men  had 
his  powers  of  endurance.  He  had  no  ills.  No  one  can 
remember  Mr.  Patterson  having  had  a  really  serious  ill¬ 
ness.  Being  a  farm  boy,  the  memory  of  the  amount  of 
work  that  he  had  to  do  as  a  youngster  remained  so  vividly 
with  him  that  he  never  went  in  for  any  form  of  sport.  He 
took  exercise  in  order  to  keep  his  body  in  condition  and 
not  for  any  pleasure  that  he  got  out  of  it.  For  many 
years  he  took  no  exercise  of  any  kind.  He  advocated 
exercise  and  he  advocated  fresh  air  for  others — very  early 
in  The  N.  C .  R.  we  find  him  giving  health  hints.  But 
in  the  early  years  he  applied  none  of  the  rules  to  himself. 
Always  an  early  riser,  he  frequently  worked  uninter¬ 
ruptedly  until  well  past  midnight.  Often  he  did  this  day 
after  day  and  month  after  month.  He  had  a  voracious 


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THE  DINING  ROOM  FOR  MEN.  IT  HAS  A  SEATING  CAPACITY  OF  1,350 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


211 


appetite  and  he  ate  heavily.  He  smoked  ten  and  some¬ 
times  more  cigars  a  day.  He  never  liked  any  form  of 
alcohol,  but  in  the  early  days  he  was  not  a  total  abstainer 
and  he  had  no  objection  to  his  associates  drinking  so  long 
as  their  habits  did  not  interfere  with  business.  In  his 
own  habits  he  was  most  irregular.  Breakfast  was  about 
his  only  fixed  meal.  He  would  frequently  forget  all  about 
luncheon  and  sometimes  about  dinner.  Then  he  would 
rush  off  somewhere,  eat  a  great  deal  in  a  short  time, 
and  get  back  to  work. 

A  home  life  might  have  adjusted  his  habits,  but  he  was 
forty-four  years  old  when  he  married  Miss  Katharine 
Dudley  Beck  in  1888  and  his  habits  were  already  fixed. 
The  affairs  of  the  company  were  then  so  critical  as  to 
engage  practically  all  of  his  time.  He  was  unused  to 
home  life  and  he  was  just  beginning  to  get  accustomed  to 
it  when  Mrs.  Patterson  died  in  June,  1894,  leaving  him 
with  two  children,  Frederick  Beck,  two  years  old,  and 
Dorothy  Forster,  less  than  a  year  old.  Mr.  Patterson 
was  helpless.  He  knew  nothing  whatsoever  about  chil¬ 
dren  and  he  had  to  be  away  so  much  that  at  once  it  was 
evident  that  he  could  not  possibly  rear  his  children.  He 
wanted  very  much  to  have  them  with  him  but  he  simply 
did  not  know  what  to  do,  and  so  Frederick,  who  is  now 
the  president  of  the  company,  and  Dorothy,  who  is  now 
Mrs.  Noble  Brandon  Judah,  were  brought  up  almost 
wholly  by  relatives,  principally  by  his  sister,  Mrs.  Jo¬ 
seph  H.  Crane.  Once  more  Mr.  Patterson  was  alone  with 
the  Cash  Register  Company. 

He  loved  his  children  but  he  did  not  understand  them. 
One  understands  children  only  through  being  with  them 
through  the  early  stages  of  their  development — during 
the  time  when  they  change  from  tadpoles  into  bullfrogs. 


212 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Mr.  Patterson  missed  all  this.  And  it  was  not  until 
Frederick  and  Dorothy  had  passed  their  adolescence  that 
he  really  began  to  know  them  well,  and  it  was  only  from 
then  on  that  John  H.  Patterson  began  to  get  anything  out 
of  life  for  himself.  I  do  not  mean  to  get  anything  in  a 
material  way,  for  that  which  was  material  was  for  him 
only  a  means  to  an  end.  But  until  he  was  past  seventy  he 
might  as  well  have  been  a  disembodied  spirit,  working  for 
the  state,  as  far  as  anything  intimately  personal  might  be 
concerned. 

He  never  worked  for  himself;  he  never  worked  for 
money;  he  did  not  really  know  what  money  was,  except¬ 
ing  that  it  bought  things  that  seemed  to  give  people 
pleasure  and  also  that  it  was  a  lure  to  cause  other  people 
to  better  themselves.  Although  the  cash  register  has 
solely  to  do  with  the  recording  of  money  or  of  that  which 
represents  money,  and  although  Mr.  Patterson  devised 
countless  arguments  why  every  merchant  should  have  a 
cash  register,  he  was  himself  about  as  unlike  a  cash  regis¬ 
ter  as  any  human  being  that  ever  lived.  Out  of  the 
profits  of  the  company  he  took  very  little  for  himself.  In 
later  years  his  personal  salary  ranged  from  eighty  to  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  his  stock  dividends 
for  many  years  were  restricted  to  2  per  cent.  But  he 
never  knew  how  much  money  he  had  because  he  never 
kept  any  track  of  the  checks  he  drew. 

And  he  never,  excepting  when  his  attention  was  called 
to  it,  made  any  particular  distinction  between  his  ex¬ 
penses  and  company  affairs — he  could  not,  for  there  was 
never  a  moment  of  his  life  when  he  was  not  directly  or 
indirectly  on  company  affairs.  It  was  his  company,  and 
he  treated  it  as  such.  He  could  never  work  up  any  in¬ 
terest  as  to  how  or  where  the  Accounting  Department 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


213 


would  dispose  of  some  of  the  items  he  sent  in  for  pay¬ 
ment.  He  despised  bookkeeping  anyway,  and  one  of  his 
favourite  sayings  was  to  the  effect  that  you  must  never 
try  to  make  an  executive  out  of  a  bookkeeper  for  he  might 
drop  all  the  affairs  of  the  company  to  run  to  earth  an 
irregular  item  of  eleven  cents.  Likewise  he  would  not 
make  an  executive  out  of  an  engineer.  He  said  that  an 
engineer  might  think  the  company’s  fate  hung  on  a  thou¬ 
sandth  of  an  inch. 

He  charged  to  the  company’s  account  or  paid  out  of  his 
own  account  just  as  the  spirit  moved  him  excepting  that 
there  is  a  distinct  suspicion  that  often  he  sent  charges  to 
the  company  just  to  see  what  the  officers  might  do  about 
them.  But  he  did  not  charge  in  this  fashion  because  he 
cared  who  did  the  paying.  He  was  just  as  likely  to  pay 
a  strictly  company  item  out  of  his  own  pocket. 

He  was  not  extravagant  in  the  ordinary  meaning  of 
the  word  for  the  smallest  of  all  his  expenditures  were 
those  which  had  to  do  with  himself.  He  could  easily 
have  travelled  in  a  private  car,  but  he  never  did  so  unless 
he  had  a  large  party  with  him.  Only  in  his  later  years 
did  he  take  a  compartment  or  a  drawing  room.  He  spent 
a  good  deal  on  his  clothing,  about  which  he  was  exceed¬ 
ingly  particular.  But  he  never  bought  the  highest  priced 
automobiles;  he  never  maintained  an  elaborate  establish¬ 
ment;  he  never  owned  any  jewellery  to  speak  of,  and  he 
never  bought  any  expensive  jewellery.  The  idea  of  spend¬ 
ing  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  a  string  of  pearls 
was  to  him  unthinkable.  He  gave  his  money  away. 
Very  few  personal  appeals  passed  his  notice.  He  sent 
countless  numbers  of  teachers  and  clergymen  on  tours 
of  Europe  or  of  the  United  States.  He  thought  that 
travelling  was  the  best  of  education.  In  this  way  he 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


214 

managed  to  use  up  his  entire  income,  and  frequently  his 
bank  would  ask  the  officers  of  the  company  to  see  if  they 
could  get  Mr.  Patterson  to  stop  drawing  checks  for  a 
while. 

He  had  no  investments.  His  capital  was  in  the  Cash 
Register  Company  and  in  the  people  he  aided.  For 
many  years  he  paid  personal  bills  in  cash  as  he  went  along 
and  usually  he  carried  one  or  two  thousand  dollars  in 
new  money  with  him.  He  would  not  use  old  money. 
But  as  he  grew  older  he  often  mislaid  his  pocketbook. 
It  frequently  happened  that  when  he  asked  you  to  lunch¬ 
eon  or  dinner  at  a  hotel  and  the  check  came  he  would 
rummage  through  his  pockets  and  then,  in  the  most  pain¬ 
ful  embarrassment,  borrow  a  dollar  or  two  from  you  to 
tip  the  waiter.  Always  the  next  morning  without  fail 
you  would  receive  in  new  bills  the  amount  that  you  had 
loaned  to  him.  He  would  tip  lavishly  for  good  service 
and  pay  nothing  at  all  for  bad  service.  At  the  very 
moment  when  he  was  shamefacedly  borrowing  a  dollar 
he  would  undoubtedly  have  somewhere  at  least  a  thou¬ 
sand  dollars.  Everyone  who  travelled  with  Mr.  Patter¬ 
son  was  in  constant  terror  lest  he  should  lose  his  money, 
for  his  pocketbook  was  constantly  turning  up  in  the  most 
unexpected  places.  Mr.  Patterson  was  the  only  one  who 
never  bothered  about  his  pocketbook.  Finally  he  gave 
up  even  attempting  to  carry  much  money  and  gave  all 
his  funds  to  Doctor  Barr  and  his  valet  who  were  nearly 
always  with  him  in  his  later  years.  When  informing 
them  of  this  arrangement,  he  presented  them  with  a  little 
red  account  book  and  a  system  of  bookkeeping. 

“Now,”  he  said,  “we  won’t  have  any  more  trouble. 
On  this  left-hand  page  you  write  ‘Received’  and  on  the 
right-hand  page,  ‘Paid  out.  ’  That  is  all  the  bookkeeping 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH  21 5 

we  are  going  to  have.  That  is  all  the  bookkeeping  any  one 
needs.  When  you  need  more  money,  tell  me.” 

And  Doctor  Barr  said  that  Mr.  Patterson  never  once 
looked  at  the  account. 

But  to  get  back  to  health.  The  tense,  lonely,  driving 
life  that  Mr.  Patterson  led  broke  down  his  digestion  dur¬ 
ing  the  nineties  and  he  began  to  realize  that  if  he  were 
going  to  be  a  machine  he  would  have  to  take  care  of  him¬ 
self.  On  one  of  his  foreign  trips  he  had  met  Horace  Flet¬ 
cher,  who  was  then  bringing  out  the  principles  which  we 
now  know  as  “Fletcherism.”  Mr.  Patterson  wanted  to 
get  rid  of  his  indigestion  at  once.  He  had  no  patience 
with  any  kind  of  a  cure  unless  it  promised  immediate 
and  complete  results.  Speaking  of  Mr.  Fletcher,  he  said : 

“It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  be  thrown  in  inti¬ 
mately  with  Mr.  Fletcher,  whom  you  know  as  the  author 
of  ‘Menti-Culture,  or  the  A.  B.  C.  of  True  Living,’ 
‘Happiness  as  Found  in  Forethought,’  ‘That  Last  Waif, 
or  Social  Quarantine,’  ‘Glutton  or  Epicure’  and  so  forth. 
In  reading  a  book,  one  often  wonders  if  the  author  prac¬ 
tises  what  he  preaches.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  I  think  Mr. 
Fletcher  lives  up  to  all  he  advocates,  and  I  shall  always 
look  back  with  pleasure  and  profit  to  the  days  which 
we  spent  together  among  the  mountains  of  Switzerland. 

“Mr.  Fletcher  claims  that  health,  harmony,  and  happi¬ 
ness  are  the  natural  heritage  of  man,  and  the  best  illus¬ 
tration  to  prove  his  theory  is  his  own  personal  experience. 
When  I  first  met  him,  two  and  one  half  years  ago,  he 
carried  sixty  pounds  of  surplus  flesh,  could  not  endure 
much  fatigue,  and  complained  of  several  ills.  His  weight 
now  is  down  to  normal,  circulation  perfect,  and  general 
health  most  excellent.  He  had  lost  all  of  his  ills  and  one 
day  rode  192  miles  on  a  bicycle.” 


216 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Horace  Fletcher  was  then  living  in  Venice.  The  fame 
of  his  methods  of  mastication  had  spread  through  the 
world.  His  theory  was  essentially  to  take  very  small 
quantities  of  food  and  masticate  them  with  extraordinary 
thoroughness.  Mr.  Patterson  at  the  same  time  fell  in 
with  a  book  written  by  Lewis  Cornaro  called  “The  Art 
of  Living  Long.”  Cornaro  was  probably  the  first  man 
to  take  up  vegetarianism  on  other  than  religious  princi¬ 
ples.  He  was  an  Italian  of  the  Renaissance  period  who, 
having  been  given  up  as  incurable,  proceeded  to  take 
charge  of  his  own  diet.  He  took  food  in  exact  quantities, 
varying  the  quantity  according  to  the  state  of  his  health, 
and  because  of,  or  in  spite  of,  this  theory  he  lived  well 
beyond  100  years.  He  set  out  in  essays  exactly  how  he 
managed.  Mr.  Patterson  immediately  made  Cornaro’s 
book  the  companion  of  his  Bible,  and  he  read  in  it  as  in 
his  Bible,  every  day. 

Horace  Fletcher  was  assisted  in  his  work  by  his  son- 
in-law,  Doctor  Van  Someren.  Mr.  Patterson  consulted 
with  them. 

-  Doctor  Van  Someren  was  in  charge  of  the  fast  and  this 
is  the  account  taken  from  his  records: 

“Mr.  Patterson  came  to  Venice,  as  you  all  know,  this 
summer.  There  he  fell  ill  and  lost  his  appetite.  I  coun¬ 
selled  him  to  wait  until  his  appetite  returned,  and  he 
waited  thirty-seven  days,  taking  nothing  but  water.  He 
did  exactly  as  he  liked.  He  lay  down.  He  walked  about 
outside.  At  times  he  was  very  depressed,  and  at  times  his 
mind  was  wonderfully  active.  He  used  to  come  to  table 
to  see  us  eat  but  never  had  the  slightest  desire  for  food. 

“On  the  thirty-third  day  he  went  to  bed  and  stayed 
there  for  three  days  as  he  felt  rather  weak  and  disinclined 
to  get  up. 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


217 


“On  the  thirty-fourth  day  he  began  talking  of  food. 
He  continued  to  do  so  until  the  end  of  his  fast.  His 
mind  wandered  over  all  things  edible.  He  thought,  be  it 
noted,  how  delicious  everything  seemed  to  be,  but  as  yet 
had  no  inclination  to  eat  anything. 

“On  the  thirty-sixth  day  he  left  his  bed  feeling  re¬ 
markably  strong  and  he  walked  about  with  a  firm  pace. 
On  the  evening  of  that  day  he  had  a  strong  desire  for  some 
stick  bread,  which  is  made  in  that  part  of  Italy.  I 
counselled  him  to  wait  one  day  to  make  sure,  and  on  the 
thirty-seventh  day,  finding  an  increased  desire  for  this 
same  food,  he  broke  his  fast. 

“Now,  what  happened  to  Mr.  Patterson  during  all  this 
time?  We  had  left  Venice  on  account  of  the  heat  and 
had  gone  up  into  the  mountains.  While  it  was  sunny 
and  warm  during  the  day,  the  evenings  and  nights  were 
cold  and  refreshing.  He  lived  in  the  open  air.  He  did 
exactly  as  he  willed.  He  lay  down  and  took  sun  baths 
every  day  in  the  midst  of  beautiful  scenery.  Why  did 
he  not  have  an  appetite?  Why  was  this  natural  function 
in  abeyance?  Because  during  this  period  of  abstention 
processes  of  regeneration  were  going  on  in  his  body. 
These  processes  were  demonstrable  to  ourselves,  among 
whom  was  a  noted  physiologist  from  Harvard  University. 
These  processes  of  regeneration  were  occurring  more 
quickly  because  Mr.  Patterson  had  relieved  his  body  of 
the  strain  of  digestion  and  the  body  consequently  was 
able  to  concentrate  all  its  efforts  on  restoring  those  parts 
of  the  body  which  were  not  normal,  and  the  abnormality 
of  which  had  caused  him  much  discomfort  for  many  years. 

“During  all  this  time  Mr.  Patterson  was  living  on  his 
own  body,  consequently  when  he  again  began  to  take  food 
his  muscles  were  in  an  exhausted  condition.  Conse- 


218 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


quently,  it  has  been  necessary  to  build  those  muscles  up  by 
taking  food  in  economic  quantities,  and  plenty  of  fresh  air.” 

Mr.  Patterson  never  told  the  full  story  of  this  fast, 
but  E.  Wake  Cook,  in  his  book Betterment,  Individual, 
Social,  and  Industrial,”  includes  a  full  and  fairly  accurate 
account.  He  probably  obtained  his  facts  from  Doctor 
Van  Someren.  Some  allowance  must  be  made  for  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  author: 

A  truly  remarkable  case  has  come  to  some  extent  under  my  own 
observation.  A  distinguished  American,  one  whose  eager,  tireless 
spirit  would  wear  out  the  strongest  of  bodies,  or  half-a-dozen  bodies, 
if  it  could  inhabit  and  use  them  in  turn,  had  to  pay  the  penalty  of  the 
too-strenuous  life.  Although  he  came  of  a  splendid  stock,  the  wear 
and  tear  of  the  high-pressure  work  in  the  United  States  brought  on  a 
complication  of  internal  troubles  which  under  ordinary  treatment 
might  have  soon  ended  his  valuable  life.  Starting  for  Europe  for  the 
needed  rest,  he  travelled  by  the  Southern  route  and  through  Italy 
during  the  hottest  months  of  a  hot  year  (1904)  and  arrived  at  Venice 
in  a  high  fever.  He  placed  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  English  physi¬ 
cian,  Doctor  Van  Someren,  Mr.  Fletcher’s  co-worker.  For  three  years 
this  doctor  had  been  tentatively  applying  Doctor  Dewey’s  principles 
with  invariable  success.  After  explaining  them  in  their  simplicity  to 
his  patient,  the  latter  determined  to  adopt  the  seemingly  heroic 
treatment.  He  totally  abstained  from  food,  and  in  twenty-four  hours 
the  fever  had  quite  left  him. 

He  went  with  his  doctor  to  Val  Sesia,  a  grand  Alpine  valley  under 
the  shadow  of  Monte  Rosa.  There  for  thirty-seven  days  he  con¬ 
tinued  his  fast.  Although  he  rested  nearly  all  the  time,  he  despatched 
business  matters  whenever  they  needed  attention  with  his  usual  alert¬ 
ness.  He  lost  nearly  a  pound  in  weight  every  day.  I  saw  him  on  the 
thirty-fifth  day  of  his  fast;  he  was  thin,  but  there  was  nothing  to 
suggest  that  he  had  been  fasting.  During  all  this  time  there  had 
been  no  appetite,  but  there  was  an  occasional  desire  to  smell  the  food 
which  was  pronounced  increasingly  good.  On  the  evening  of  the 
thirty-sixth  day  there  was  a  flooding  of  saliva  into  the  mouth  in  such 
quantities  as  to  cause  frequent  swallowing, — a  sign  of  returning  appe- 


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THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


219 


tite.  This  phenomenon  was  transitory,  and  on  the  advice  of  the 
doctor  was  disregarded.  Nature  not  only  demanded  food  as  soon  as 
she  was  able  to  deal  with  it,  but  she  also  dictated  the  kind  of  food 
needed.  The  first  food  desired  was  some  of  the  local  bread  baked  in 
sticks  and  therefore  all  crust.  The  next  day  a  roasted  potato  was 
desired.  With  these  simple  foods  the  long  fast  was  broken;  and  it  is 
a  significant  fact  that  these  should  have  been  chosen.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  every  mouthful  was  faithfully  Fletcherized. 

During  the  whole  of  the  fast,  or  dietetic  rest,  the  careful  doctor 
had  the  waste  products  analyzed,  and  it  was  noted  that  all  the  patho¬ 
logical  symptoms  gradually  disappeared.  By  the  time  the  appetite 
returned,  all  traces  of  disease  had  gone! 

When  we  left  him  at  Alagna,  he  expressed  the  intention  of  resting 
another  week,  and  then  travelling  to  England  by  easy  stages.  Four 
days  later  he  astonished  and  delighted  the  members  of  the  Physiologi¬ 
cal  Congress  at  Brussels  by  appearing  before  them.  Among  them 
was  Dr.  Henry  Bowditch,  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  who  had 
seen  a  good  deal  of  the  earlier  stages  of  the  fast,  and  was  anxious  con¬ 
cerning  the  daring  experiment,  as  he  regarded  it,  which  the  doctor  and 
his  distinguished  patient  were  engaged  in.  It  was  an  impressive 
demonstration  of  what  will  probably  prove  to  be  the  most  important 
chapter  in  the  history  of  the  healing  art,  which  has  hitherto  lagged  so 
sadly  behind  the  splendidly  progressive  science  of  surgery. 

The  doctor  prescribed  a  systematic  course  of  exercise,  and  ac¬ 
cordingly  this  new-made  man  went  with  him  on  a  riding  tour  through 
the  south  of  England,  with  a  Sandow  trainer  in  his  suite.  They  rode 
from  twenty  to  twenty-five  miles  a  day,  with  a  good  deal  of  walking, 
fishing,  and  a  regular  course  of  Sandow  exercises.  The  enjoyment  of 
regained  health  brought  about  a  return  of  the  old  tendency  to  over¬ 
work,  and  caused  a  setback;  but  a  few  days  of  dietetic  rest  put  mat¬ 
ters  right. 

Two  months  later  I  saw  him  in  London.  He  was  still  thin,  but 
the  eyes  were  bright  and  the  complexion  clear,  and  he  was  despatch¬ 
ing  various  affairs  with  that  easy,  unhurrying  celerity  which  is  one 
secret  of  the  American’s  wonderful  power  of  work.  I  saw  him  change 
into  flannels  and  go  through  a  severe  course  of  exercises  under  his 
Sandow  professor — exercises  that  would  have  tired  out  many  a 
younger  man — and  all  the  movements  were  bright  and  rapid. 


220 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


After  this  he  went  round  the  world,  taking  his  physical  trainer  with 
him,  and  continued  to  carry  out  the  exercises  systematically.  He 
returned  from  that  long,  fatiguing,  and  exciting  trip  strong,  fit,  and, 
as  his  friends  said,  looking  twenty  years  younger.  He  is  greatly 
impressed  with  the  value  of  systematic  and  all-round  exercise;  and  he 
finds,  as  he  informed  Doctor  Bowditch,  that  with  it  he  can  get  through 
as  much  work  in  four  hours  as  he  could  do  formerly  in  a  long  and  ex¬ 
hausting  day. 

The  worth  of  this  cure  is  a  matter  of  speculation.  The 
best  opinion  seems  to  be  that  it  permanently  injured 
Mr.  Patterson’s  health,  for  he  was  never  the  same  after¬ 
ward,  although  at  the  time  he  claimed  that  he  had  found 
youth.  When  he  got  back  to  London,  as  is  noted  in  Mr. 
Cook’s  account,  he  was  very  weak.  Sandow  was  re¬ 
puted  to  be  the  strongest  man  in  the  world.  Therefore 
Mr.  Patterson  went  to  him  to  get  strong.  That  was  his 
direct  way  of  doing  things.  He  secured  from  Sandow  a 
sort  of  rubber  or  trainer  by  the  name  of  Palmer,  an 
enterprising  cockney  with  a  finely  balanced  body  but 
what  appears  to  have  been  a  somewhat  unbalanced  in¬ 
tellect. 

Mr.  Patterson  was  on  his  way  around  the  world  and 
Palmer  went  along.  It  was  his  duty  to  see  that  Mr. 
Patterson  took  proper  exercise,  so  every  day,  no  matter 
what  was  going  on,  Palmer  put  Mr.  Patterson  into  flannels 
and  sent  him  through  a  course  of  Sandow  calisthenics. 
He  made  him  ride.  What  is  more,  whoever  was  with  Mr. 
Patterson  had  to  follow  the  same  programme.  A  group 
of  executives  of  the  company  who  were  in  London  and 
Paris  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Patterson  were  included  in  the 
regime.  Mr.  Patterson’s  theory  was  that  whatever  was 
good  for  one  person  was  good  for  all  persons.  He  thought 
the  treatment  benefited  him.  Therefore,  everyone  whom 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


221 


he  could  control  had  to  live  in  the  same  way.  Palmer 
accompanied  Mr.  Patterson  around  the  world  and  back 
to  Dayton.  He  established  himself  in  Mr.  Patterson’s 
confidence.  Having  looked  over  the  executive  personnel 
of  the  N.  C.  R.,  Palmer  decided  that  they  did  not  get 
enough  exercise — which  was  true.  He  had  himself  made 
the  health  and  hygiene  overlord  of  the  institution. 

He  prescribed  early  morning  exercise  for  all  executives 
and  immediately  all  of  the  executives  were  required  to  be 
at  the  factory  at  five  o’clock  in  the  morning,  to  go  through 
calisthenics,  take  a  bath,  and  be  rubbed  down.  They 
were  given  breakfast  at  the  factory.  A  little  later  Palmer 
decided  that  all  of  these  men  should  ride  horseback  in  the 
morning.  Mr.  Patterson  bought  a  great  string  of  saddle 
horses,  and  for  a  long  time  any  one  who  happened  to  be 
wandering  about  Dayton  at  dawn  could  see  a  cavalcade 
of  N.  C.  R.  executives,  led  by  Mr.  Patterson  and  Palmer, 
riding  through  Hills  and  Dales.  Probably  nothing  like 
this  ever  happened  before  in  an  American  business  in¬ 
stitution.  Those  of  the  executives  who  did  not  know  how 
to  ride  and  would  not  learn  how  to  ride  ceased  forthwith 
to  be  executives.  It  was  laid  down  as  a  maxim  that  no 
one  who  could  not  manage  a  horse  could  be  expected  to 
manage  men. 

The  whole  adventure  has  its  funny  side,  but  actually  it 
was  a  mighty  good  thing  for  these  men,  shut  up  all  day 
as  they  had  been,  to  get  out  into  the  open.  The  N.  C.  R. 
people  who  date  from  this  period  are  about  as  healthy  a 
lot  of  individuals  to-day  as  can  anywhere  be  found. 

Palmer  as  a  trainer  was  a  unique  and  advantageous 
addition  to  the  company,  but  Palmer  could  not  stand 
power.  He  had  not  the  remotest  conception  of  business 
and  yet  he  found  himself  practically  dominating  the 


222 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


lives  of  a  great  number  of  able  men.  He  began  to  think 
that  he  knew  a  great  deal  about  men  and  business  and  he 
thereupon  confided  to  Mr.  Patterson  that  he  had  the 
power  to  read  the  characters  of  men  from  their  faces.  Mr. 
Patterson  fell  in  with  the  idea,  for  he  dearly  loved  novel¬ 
ties  and  this  was  a  complete  novelty.  He  would  try  al¬ 
most  anything  once.  And  also  Mr.  Patterson  liked  to 
be  regulated. 

He  let  Palmer  go  ahead  reading  faces.  Palmer  gave 
adverse  reports  on  the  faces  of  some  of  the  men  who  were 
then  very  prominent  in  the  affairs  of  the  company. 
They  went  out.  It  may  be  that  Mr.  Patterson  was  not 
displeased  at  having  some  of  these  men  out,  for  although 
he  pretended  to  accept  all  of  Palmer’s  findings  he  really 
accepted  only  those  that  he  wanted  to  accept.  No  one 
could  ever  quite  tell  how  much  Mr.  Patterson  was  being 
fooled  in  anything.  Certainly  he  was  never  fooled  for 
long,  and  it  may  be  that  Palmer  was  only  an  excuse  for 
a  general  reorganization.  After  a  group  of  men  had  gone, 
Mr.  Patterson  affected  to  be  less  pleased  with  Palmer’s 
findings  than  he  seemed  to  be  before  and  Palmer  was 
sent  to  England  to  take  charge  of  the  business  there.  His 
stay  in  England  was  brief  and  disastrous,  and  then  he 
passed  out  of  the  service  of  the  N.  C.  R. 

From  the  time  of  the  great  fast  on  Mr.  Patterson  was 
always  under  a  doctor’s  care.  His  digestion  was  bad  and 
he  was  afraid  of  apoplexy.  He  began  to  take  the  most 
extraordinary  and  the  most  circumstantial  care  of  his 
health,  and  doctors  became  to  him  something  in  the  way 
of  a  recreation.  He  visited  doctors  all  over  the  world. 
Some  of  them  were  honest;  others  thought  that  John  H. 
Patterson  as  a  patient  was  a  decided  asset.  Mr.  Patterson 
always  agreed  with  every  diagnosis  and  with  the  treat- 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


223 


ment,  especially  if  it  were  interesting,  and  for  a  time 
he  nearly  always  did  what  the  physician  of  the  mo¬ 
ment  prescribed  for  him.  But  he  tired  of  doctors  as 
he  tired  of  everything  else,  and  it  was  not  until  the  latter 
years  of  his  life  that  Dr.  F.  G.  Barr  managed  to  induce 
him  to  give  up  doctors  as  a  recreation  and  to  adjust  his 
diet  on  reasonable  lines.  Doctor  Kellogg,  the  founder 
of  the  Battle  Creek  sanatorium,  had  considerable  in¬ 
fluence  over  him,  or,  to  be  more  accurate,  he  agreed  with 
a  number  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  health  ideas,  and  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson  spent  part  of  every  year  in  this  sanatorium. 

Mr.  Patterson’s  diet  was  extraordinary  and  was  largely 
of  his  own  devising.  From  1912  to  1917  he  ate  no  meat  at 
all.  He  ate  many  baked  potatoes — far  too  many,  so  the 
physicians  say.  He  used  to  breakfast  on  toast  which  he 
dipped  in  olive  oil.  He  was  very  particular  about  this 
olive  oil  and  for  years  sent  to  Italy  for  a  certain  brand. 
Then  he  went  to  Italy  and  saw  how  the  oil  was  made. 
Thereafter  he  always  sent  to  California  for  his  olive  oil. 
He  went  to  bed  at  nine  or  ten  o’clock  and  usually  got  up 
about  four.  Sometimes  he  would  ride  in  the  early  morn¬ 
ing,  or  again  he  would  work.  He  liked  to  be  at  the  office 
not  later  than  seven.  Later,  he  adopted  the  rule  of  44  work 
an  hour,  rest  an  hour,  work  an  hour,  and  go  home.” 
He  had  a  bedroom  and  bath  at  the  factory  and  usually 
at  eleven  o’clock,  or  sometimes  at  ten  o’clock,  he  would 
leave  whatever  he  was  doing,  have  a  massage,  a  bath, 
and  a  rest.  He  took  four  or  five  baths  a  day  and  he 
was  extremely  particular  that  the  temperature  of  these 
baths  should  be  prescribed  as  well  as  the  length  of  time 
that  it  was  wise  for  him  to  stay  in  them.  He  had  a  very 
curious  belief  in  the  exactness  of  medical  prescription. 
For  instance,  if  he  had  been  ordered  to  stay  in  his  bath 


224 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


ten  minutes  and  happened  to  stay  in  eleven  minutes  and 
then  did  not  feel  well  the  rest  of  that  day,  he  would  set  it 
down  to  the  extra  minute  in  the  bath. 

He  drank  a  glass  of  hot  distilled  water  every  half  hour, 
and  there  was  a  servant  at  the  factory — a  fine  chap  by 
the  name  of  George — under  instructions  to  bring  in  this 
glass  of  water  no  matter  what  kind  of  a  meeting  Mr. 
Patterson  was  engaged  in.  Often,  as  he  sipped  the  water, 
he  would  say: 

“This  is  good.  I  wonder  if  it  would  not  be  good  for  all 
of  us.  We  might  all  do  better  work.”  And  turning  to  the 
servant,  he  would  say:  “Bring  hot  water  for  everybody.” 

He  stopped  smoking  because  he  thought  it  was  harm¬ 
ful.  He  gradually  cut  everything  out  of  his  life  that  he 
thought  was  harmful.  He  tried  to  regulate  himself  in 
every  act.  For  a  time  he  had  his  food  weighed.  He  was 
very  jealous  of  Edison’s  ability  to  get  along  with  so  little 
sleep.  He  envied  Napoleon’s  reputed  five  hours’  sleep. 
His  valet,  Roberts,  who  was  with  him  for  many  years, 
every  day  made  up  a  sheet  on  his  health  and  handed  it  to 
Doctor  Barr.  He  had  his  pulse  and  his  respiration,  his 
temperature  and  his  blood  pressure,  taken  daily. 

Now  the  plain  fact  is  that  much  of  this  was  recreation. 
He  would  come  out  of  a  meeting  in  which  he  was  having 
a  hard  time  to  convince  his  associates  of  a  plan  that  he 
wanted  to  put  into  operation,  all  worried  and  excited. 
He  would  call  Doctor  Barr,  who  was  always  near  by,  and 
have  his  pulse  and  blood  pressure  taken.  Doctor  Barr 
would  usually  find  them  normal.  Mr.  Patterson  would 
insist  that  they  were  not  normal,  and  would  ask: 

“What  shall  I  do?  Had  I  better  stop  work  and  go 
home?” 

Doctor  Barr  would  suggest  some  simple  application 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH  225 

like  a  cold  towel.  In  a  few  minutes  Mr.  Patterson  would 
feel  better. 

“Now,  let  me  go  back,”  he  would  say. 

He  would  go  back,  and  usually  he  would  win  his  point. 
It  might  take  him  another  hour  or  it  might  take  two 
hours,  but  no  matter  how  long  it  took  he  would  come 
out  of  the  meeting  feeling  fresh  and  bright  and  with  no 
thought  of  his  health. 

His  daily  programmes  varied.  One  that  he  used  for  a 
long  time  was  to  rise  between  five  and  six  and  to  work  for 
an  hour.  Then  he  would  go  to  the  office,  arriving  some 
time  before  seven.  In  the  middle  of  the  morning  he 
would  have  his  massage  and  rest.  At  twelve-thirty 
he  would  go  home  and  have  lunch  and  he  would  go  to  bed 
for  an  hour  or  two,  and  after  that  ride  hard  for  another 
hour  or  two.  On  his  return  he  would  have  another  bath, 
take  dinner  at  seven,  and  then  have  meetings  or  callers 
until  ten  o’clock  when  he  went  to  bed. 

He  read  a  great  many  books  and  newspapers  but  he 
rarely  read  all  of  any,  because  he  became  disgusted  unless 
the  language  was  very  simple  and  direct.  If  he  found  that 
a  book  contained  a  good  idea,  he  would  have  it  sent  to  the 
factory  and  drawn  up  in  chart  form.  He  went  to  the 
theatre  a  great  deal,  but  rarely  stayed  out  a  whole  per¬ 
formance.  It  must  be  remembered  that  he  went  to  the 
theatre  not  only  for  pleasure  but  in  order  to  learn  some¬ 
thing  that  he  could  use  in  the  N.  C.  R.  affairs.  Here  is  a 
typical  evening.  Mr.  Patterson  and  Doctor  Rarr  were 
in  Philadelphia  attending  a  convention.  On  the  after¬ 
noon  of  the  last  day  Mr.  Patterson  said  before  the  con¬ 
vention  : 

“We  have  all  had  such  a  good  time,  we  had  better  have 
another  meeting  this  evening.” 


226 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Most  of  the  men  had  already  made  their  plans  to  go 
home  but  of  course  they  stayed.  When  the  convention 
hour  came  around  Mr.  Patterson  suggested  to  Doctor 
Barr  that  they  go  to  the  theatre.  He  said  the  convention 
would  be  better  off  without  him. 

“Let  us  go  to  see  John  Drew,”  he  said,  “I  have  always 
liked  John  Drew.  Let  the  men  at  the  convention  enjoy 
themselves.” 

After  about  ten  minutes  of  the  play  Mr.  Patterson 
turned  to  Doctor  Barr: 

“Do  you  like  this?  I  do  not  think  much  of  it.  Let  us 
try  something  else.” 

They  went  on  to  a  musical  comedy,  getting  seats  in  the 
second  row.  In  five  minutes: 

“I  don’t  see  anything  but  legs.  It  is  the  same  old 
stuff.  Let  us  try  somewhere  else.” 

They  went  around  to  a  play.  This  one  kept  him  ten 
minutes. 

“Isn’t  there  anything  else  in  town?” 

They  next  tried  a  travel  lecture  at  the  Academy  of 
Music.  Mr.  Patterson  not  only  stayed  through  this  but 
went  up  and  congratulated  the  lecturer  when  he  was 
through.  He  simply  could  not  rest  unless  he  were  learn¬ 
ing  something. 

He  loved  music  but  he  did  not  know  the  “Doxology” 
from  “Yankee  Doodle”  and  he  never  could  understand 
why  any  one  wasted  time  going  to  operas.  He  was  never 
able  to  sit  through  a  whole  opera.  Once  he  gave  a  hotel 
orchestra  twenty  dollars  to  play  a  march.  They  played 
“Annie  Laurie,”  but  not  as  a  march.  It  proved  to  be 
exactly  what  Mr.  Patterson  wanted.  Leaning  back,  he 
said:  “Now  that  is  a  real  rest.”  He  could  not  sit  through 
Harry  Lauder.  Once  in  London,  when  Lauder  was  in  the 


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HIS  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 

Mr.  Patterson  believed  in  horseback  riding  not  only  for  himself  but  he  prescribed  it  for  his  executives  as  well.  It  was  laid  down  as 
a  max:m  that  one  who  could  not  manage  a  horse  could  not  be  expected  to  manage  men.  Mr.  Patterson  was  seventy-seven  years  of 

age  when  this  photograph  was  taken 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


227 


midst  of  one  of  his  best  songs,  Mr.  Patterson,  sitting  in 
the  third  row,  gathered  up  his  fur  coat,  his  hat,  his  cane, 
his  gloves,  and  marched  out. 

He  was  ever  restless.  He  liked  to  go  up  to  a  camp  in  the 
Adirondacks — “Number  Four”  it  was  called — but  he 
was  no  sooner  there  than  he  was  ready  to  turn  back  again. 
New  York  was  about  the  only  city  in  which  he  would 
spend  more  than  a  few  days.  He  liked  to  take  long  trips 
through  the  wilds,  but  when  the  novelty  of  the  thing  be¬ 
gan  to  pall  he  would  break  all  records  to  get  back  to 
civilization.  Just  a  few  years  before  he  died  he  covered 
250  miles  in  a  canoe  through  Maine  and  300  miles  on  horse¬ 
back  through  Glacier  National  Park.  He  gave  much  of 
his  time  on  this  trip  to  seeing  that  the  guides  kept  the 
camp  scrupulously  clean — a  man  of  cleaner  and  more 
orderly  habits  than  Mr.  Patterson  never  lived.  When¬ 
ever  they  started  away  from  a  camp  he  would  insist  that 
the  place  be  left  in  such  condition  that  the  next  camper 
would  have  nothing  at  all  to  clean  up.  The  guides  were 
restive  under  his  control  and  one  of  them,  thinking  to  end 
the  trouble,  got  up  during  the  night  and  threw  the  only 
shovel  into  the  lake.  He  thought  that  Mr.  Patterson 
would  not  know  about  it  and  that  the  cleaning  up  would 
have  to  be  abandoned  for  want  of  a  shovel.  He  did  not 
know  with  whom  he  was  dealing. 

Mr.  Patterson  said  nothing  at  all  about  a  shovel  the  next 
morning  when  they  broke  camp;  he  did  not  even  insist  upon 
the  camp  being  left  neat.  But  after  they  had  gone  about 
ten  miles  he  began  to  talk  shovel.  He  talked  nothing  but 
shovel  through  the  whole  day.  He  said  that  they  could 
not  make  camp  without  a  shovel.  Finally,  he  offered  five 
dollars  to  any  one  who  would  get  a  shovel.  The  guide 
went  back  during  the  night  and  fished  out  the  shovel! 


228 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


On  another  trip  through  the  Rocky  Mountains  suddenly 
when  the  party  was  ready  to  start  he  asked  for  a  collapsi¬ 
ble  canoe.  There  was  none  to  be  had.  The  three  guides 
and  the  nine  packhorses  were  all  ready  to  start.  For  an 
hour  Mr.  Patterson  kept  bellboys,  waiters,  and  game 
wardens  running  about  hunting  for  a  canoe.  He  could  not 
get  one.  Then  he  wanted  to  know  the  nearest  point  at 
which  a  collapsible  canoe  might  be  had.  Someone  thought 
one  might  be  bought  at  a  town  about  fifty  miles  away. 

“Here  is  $100,”  said  Mr.  Patterson  to  a  game  warden. 
“Get  on  a  boat,  go  down  the  lake,  hire  a  horse,  and  get 
to  that  town  as  fast  as  you  can.  Meet  us  fifty  miles 
out.” 

Two  days  later  the  warden  came  into  camp  with  the 
canoe.  Mr.  Patterson  looked  it  over  carefully;  he  found 
that  it  had  been  made  near  Dayton  and  he  was  delighted. 
He  thus  proved  that  a  determined  man  could  get  what  he 
wanted  anywhere. 

He  tired  of  this  trip  and  decided  to  end  it  at  once. 
That  involved  travelling  forty-e’ght  miles  in  one  day. 
The  guides  said  that  it  could  not  be  done. 

“Fifty  dollars  to  you  if  you  make  it,”  answered  Mr. 
Patterson. 

They  made  it. 

It  is  extraordinary  that  so  active  and  nervous  a  man  as 
Mr.  Patterson  and  a  man  so  impatient  of  authority 
should  so  closely  have  ordered  his  life.  His  life  through 
its  final  twenty  years  was  as  strictly  ordered  and  as 
ascetic  as  though  he  had  lived  in  the  most  rigorous  of 
monasteries.  He  wanted  to  overcome  the  flesh  and  to 
make  a  thinking,  working  machine  out  of  himself.  And 
he  nearly  succeeded.  But  it  was  a  terrific  struggle — 
a  struggle  of  which  only  Mr.  Patterson  knew  the  de- 


THE  SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


229 


tails.  He  fought  himself  every  day — he  fought  himself 
harder  than  he  fought  any  one  else. 

Every  day  he  made  notes  of  the  things  that  he  should 
not  have  done  during  that  day  and  resolved  not  to  do 
them  again.  He  had  a  quick  temper;  he  often  lost  it. 
But  never  did  he  grow  angry  without  regretting  it  after¬ 
ward.  Realizing  that  the  strain  of  anger  threatened  to 
have  serious  effects,  he  spent  several  days  listing  the 
people  and  things  which  irritated  him.  Then  he  avoided 
coming  into  contact  with  those  people  and  those  things. 

He  drew  up  for  himself  what  he  called  “My  Monthly 
Constitution.”  He  had  it  printed  and  distributed  among 
the  N.  C.  R.  people.  It  is  a  thin  paper  booklet  and  on  the 
outside  it  says: 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  to  protect  the  people  of  the 
United  States  against  themselves.  It  was  written  and  signed  and 
was  a  good  thing.  What  was  good  for  all  is  good  for  the  individual, 
hence  I  write  and  sign  my  Constitution  to  protect  me  against  my¬ 
self. 

Verbal  orders  don’t  go. 

The  first  two  pages  concern  health.  On  the  first 
page  was  “Things  not  to  do”  and  on  the  second:  “Things 
to  do.”  The  next  division  is:  “Family  and  Business 
Affairs,”  likewise  separated  into  what  to  do  and  what  not 
to  do.  Then  are  printed  these  rules: 

1.  Make  good  resolutions  intelligently  and  record  them. 

2.  Accumulate  all  circumstances  which  will  reinforce  your  resolu¬ 
tions. 

3.  Keep  away  from  temptation. 

4.  Keep  away  from  associates  who  discourage  you. 

5.  Put  yourself  in  conditions  that  encourage  the  new  way. 

6.  Seize  the  first  opportunity  to  act  on  the  resolutions  you  make. 


230 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


7.  Make  engagements  incompatible  with  the  old  way. 

8.  Never  suffer  an  exception  to  occur  until  the  new  habit  is  se¬ 
curely  rooted  in  your  life. 

9.  Remember,  until  the  new  habit  is  fixed,  each  lapse  makes  it 
more  difficult. 

10.  It  is  the  keeping,  and  not  the  making,  of  good  resolutions  which 
affects  the  brain. 

Mr.  Patterson  made  out  and  signed  a  constitution  for 
himself  every  month.  He  carried  it  in  his  card  case  and 
he  referred  to  it  almost  every  day.  He  liked  to  make 
rules — for  himself — and  for  others.  And  these  were 
among  his  favourite  principles: 

“To  do  all  in  our  power  to  win  health  and  to  keep  it  is 
as  much  our  duty  as  to  be  honest.” 

“He  who  overcomes  others  is  strong  but  he  who  over¬ 
comes  himself  is  mightier.” 

“Live  simply,  deal  honourably,  reduce  selfishness,  mod¬ 
erate  desires.” 


THE  “SLIDE  ROOM’’ 

In  which  are  filed,  for  ready  reference  and  use,  more  than  60,000  coloured  stereopticon  slides 


Built  primarily  as  a  dining  room  for  the  whole  force  of  employees.  Its  interior  was  changed  in  one  night  from  a  dining  room  into  a 

horseback  riding  course,  used  once  only,  then  changed  back  again 


CHAPTER  XIV 


MEN  AND  MANAGEMENT 

IT  HAS  been  said  that  no  sales  organization  anywhere 
in  the  United  States  numbering  more  than  twenty- 
five  people  is  without  someone  who  received  a  course 
of  training  in  the  N.  C.  R.  For  Mr.  Patterson  dealt  not  in 
things  but  in  men — he  thought  that  the  machine  was 
only  a  human  aid  and  that  if  you  made  the  human  being 
work  aright  then  the  machine  would  work  aright.  Every¬ 
thing  that  he  did  was  in  the  way  of  developing  men,  and 
that  he  did  develop  men  is  evidenced  by  the  number  of 
concerns  which  have  N.  C.  R.  men  among  the  officers. 

For  instance:  Thomas  J.  Watson  is  president  of  the 
Computing-Tabulating-Recording  Company;  Alvan  Ma- 
cauley  is  president  of  the  Packard  Motor  Car  Company; 
Henry  Theobald  is  president  of  the  Toledo  Scale  Com¬ 
pany;  E.  S.  Jordan  is  president  of  the  Jordan  Motor  Car 
Company;  Harry  Ford  is  president  of  the  Saxon  Motor 
Car  Company,  and  Lee  Counselman  was  formerly  its 
president;  R.  H.  Grant  is  president  of  the  Delco  Light 
Company;  C.  F.  Kettering  is  president  of  the  Delco  Com¬ 
pany  and  also  first  vice-president  of  the  General  Motors 
Corporation;  E.  A.  Deeds  was  formerly  at  the  head  of  the 
whole  Delco  interests  which  C.  F.  Kettering  and  he  de¬ 
veloped;  F.  A.  Wagner  is  president  of  the  Monarch  En¬ 
gineering  Company;  Jacob  Oswald  is  president  of  the 
Roto-Speed  Company;  William  Pflum  is  president  of  the 
Burke  Manufacturing  Company.  This  is  by  no  means  a 

231 


232 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


complete  list  of  the  men  who  have  gone  out  from  the 
N.  C.  R.  to  head  other  corporations,  but  in  addition  to 
them  there  is  a  host  of  men  who,  while  not  actually  at  the 
head  of  their  corporations,  hold  very  high  positions  in 
them.  Of  these  are  E.  D.  Gibbs,  advertising  manager 
of  the  Goodrich  Company  for  many  years;  E.  St.  Elmo 
Lewis,  advertising  counsellor,  and  Lee  Olwell,  assistant  to 
the  president  of  the  National  City  Bank  of  New  York- 
The  list  is  almost  endless,  for,  in  addition  to  the  men  who 
became  prominent  in  the  company  before  going  elsewhere, 
there  are  thousands  of  others  who  received  training  with 
the  company  and  who,  although  their  abilities  did  not 
happen  to  be  the  abilities  required  by  the  N.  C.  R.  to  bring 
advancement,  make  their  marks  outside  the  company. 

For  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  N.  C.  R.  under 
Mr.  Patterson  was  just  one  great,  throbbing  personality 
in  which  a  man  of  seemingly  small  ability  might  make 
a  large  success  while  another  of  large  ability  might  be  a 
failure.  For  instance,  until  quite  recent  years  an  ac¬ 
countant  could  never  arouse  Mr.  Patterson’s  interest; 
only  a  few  figures  interested  him  and  he  was  appalled  by 
great  reports.  Many  a  good  accountant  found  the  door 
just  because  he  tried  too  hard  to  interest  Mr.  Patterson 
in  the  costs  and  financial  records  of  the  business.  He 
wanted  an  accountant  who  would  tell  him  all  about  the 
business  in  a  couple  of  lines — just  as  all  his  life  he  wanted 
a  secretary  to  whom  he  could  hand  letters  with  such  com¬ 
ments  as  “Yes,  ten  lines,”  or  “No, four  lines,”  and  have  the 
things  done  with.  But,  although  the  particular  re¬ 
quirements  for  promotion  within  the  company  might  at 
times  be  unique,  the  training  was  all-round  in  its  scope. 
As  Mr.  Alvan  Macauley  says: 

“The  six  years  I  spent  under  Mr.  Patterson  were  very 


MEN  AND  MANAGEMENT 


£33 

useful  and  interesting,  and  extremely  valuable  to  me. 
I  was  a  natural  conservatist  studying  the  methods  of  an 
extreme  radical.  For  some  time  I  was  out  of  sympathy 
with  his  methods.  He  was  so  very  different  that  it  took 
me  some  time  to  see  the  principles  underlying  his  methods. 
In  time,  I  came,  of  course,  to  have  a  profound  admira¬ 
tion  for  his  greatness  as  an  industrial  leader. 

“He  was  constantly  speeding  up  everybody;  frequently 
making  business  moves  that  were  primarily  expensive  for 
the  sake  of  the  speeding-up  effect  on  the  organization. 
One  of  the  impressive  things  he  did  shortly  after  my  con¬ 
nection  began  was,  on  a  Thursday,  to  make  the  statement 
that  he  wanted  the  foundry  sodded  by  Sunday.  It  was  an 
almost  impossible  task,  but  it  was  done.  He  probably 
knew  it  would  cost  at  least  twice  as  much  to  do  it  in  so 
short  a  time,  under  forced  draft  and  with  day-and-night 
labour.  Undoubtedly  he  argued,  and  rightly,  that  the 
effect  on  the  organization  of  a  superhuman  accomplish¬ 
ment  would  more  than  offset  the  expense  involved. 

“Mr.  Patterson  was  a  strange  mixture  of  the  human  and 
the  harsh;  he  had  strange  friendships.  He  was  usually 
lavishly  generous  but  occasionally  was  parsimonious — 
apparently  for  no  good  reason.  He  would  occasionally 
attempt  to  regulate  the  smallest  details  of  the  lives  of  his 
workmen — as  to  when  and  how  often  they  should  bathe, 
the  size  of  their  tips  to  hotel  waiters,  and  what  they  should 
pay  for  their  neckties  and  where  they  should  buy  them. 
Usually  it  was  the  bigger  things  he  dealt  in,  and  he  usually 
dealt  in  them  in  a  big  way.  Always  he  had  before  him  the 
rule  that  men  accomplished  results  for  two  reasons,  and 
only  two:  namely,  hope  of  reward  or  fear  of  punishment.'’ 

Mr.  Patterson,  as  I  have  said,  worked  with  men  as  per¬ 
haps  no  other  man  has  ever  worked  with  them.  He 


/ 


234  JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

never  thought  of  anything  but  men.  If  the  product  were 
in  trouble,  he  looked  to  the  men  who  made  the  product; 
if  the  selling  were  down,  he  looked  to  the  salesmen.  And 
he  thought  of  these  men  in  an  elemental  way — he  thought 
of  them  solely  as  money-making  machines.  Or,  to  be 
more  accurate,  he  treated  them  as  money-making  ma¬ 
chines.  He  did  not  have  a  profound  knowledge  of  human 
nature — in  fact,  he  really  knew  little  about  men  and  their 
motives,  but  he  did  know  that  most  men  either  like  money 
for  itself  or  for  the  things  it  will  buy.  On  this  he  based 
all  his  plans  of  management. 

He  deliberately  created  discontent  by  insisting  that 
N.  C.  R.  men  spend  money  lavishly — an  executive  must 
always  take  the  best  room  in  the  best  hotel  in  the  town. 
Hundreds  of  men  have  been  sent  to  Europe  with  instruc¬ 
tions  to  spend  generously  and  freely;  clerks  have  been 
picked  out  of  departments  at  random  and  sent  to  New 
York  to  have  several  suits  of  clothing  made  at  the  com¬ 
pany’s  expense.  He  was  always  trying  to  give  men  a 
taste  of  what  money  would  buy  so  that  they  could  never 
become  satisfied  with  their  lot.  He  did  the  same  thing 
with  the  wives  of  the  executives  and  salesmen;  frequently 
he  would  send  parties  of  executives  and  their  wives  to 
New  York  or  to  Europe  and  he  always  insisted  that  on 
these  trips  the  wives  be  bought  one  really  fine  gown  at  the 
company’s  expense.  He  urged  the  men  on  to  work  and 
greater  effort  not  only  by  direct  promises  of  direct  re¬ 
ward  but  by  the  indirect  method  of  stimulating  desires 
which  money  alone  could  satisfy. 

Probably  no  one  else  has  ever  quite  followed  this 
method — certainly  no  one  carried  it  to  the  lengths  that 
Mr.  Patterson  did,  and  it  might  seem  at  first  to  be  a 
harsh,  even  a  cruel  method.  For  what  happened  to  the 


MEN  AND  MANAGEMENT 


235 


men  in  whom  only  the  desire  was  awakened  without  the 
means  to  earn  the  money  to  fulfil  it?  But  Mr.  Patter¬ 
son’s  answer  would  have  been  to  the  effect  that  successful 
men  are  not  born  but  made — that  most  of  the  making  has 
to  be  done  by  the  man  himself,  and  what  the  man  prin¬ 
cipally  needs  is  the  urge  to  work.  He  proved  that  in 
himself,  for  no  man  was  less  fitted  by  temperament  for 
business  than  was  Mr.  Patterson.  And  so  he  took  discon¬ 
tent  as  the  active  force  of  life;  he  was  afraid  of  content¬ 
ment.  He  was  afraid  of  people  around  him  becoming  con¬ 
tent.  He  refused  to  believe  in  perfection  other  than  as  a 
goal  far  off  that  could  never  be  reached.  He  would  seldom 
praise  a  good  piece  of  work  and  if  he  did  he  would  join 
an  exhortation  with  the  praise,  as: 

“That’s  fine,  now  do  better.” 

He  insisted  that  all  good  work  should  be  rewarded  in 
money  and  in  fame  but  he  never  let  any  one  rest  on  past 
laurels.  A  man  who  made  a  good  record  had  his  picture 
printed  in  The  N.  C.  R.  with  an  account  of  what  he  had 
done — he  did  this  partly  to  reward  the  man  and  partly  to 
challenge  all  the  other  men  to  go  and  do  likewise.  He 
wanted  results  and  only  results;  every  plan  of  the  N.  C.  R. 
was  designed  to  estimate  men  by  their  results — and  then 
to  pay  them  by  their  results.  Whenever  possible  he 
liked  to  overpay.  That  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  he  had 
no  compunctions  about  firing  a  man — he  knew  that  the 
man,  with  the  extra  salary,  would  be  sure  to  be  in  funds. 

He  had  no  standards  for  selecting  men,  and  although  he 
had  many  rules  by  which  the  departments  were  supposed 
to  select  their  men  for  promotion,  he  observed  none  of 
them  himself.  He  picked  men  for  high  places  from  with¬ 
out  the  organization  as  well  as  from  within — excepting 
that  in  the  ten  years  or  so  before  his  death  he  did  not  go 


230 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


outside  the  company  for  men  to  promote.  His  ventures 
in  hiring  stars  were  all  failures  and  the  men  who  really 
helped  him  make  the  company  were  all  men  who  had 
come  up  through  the  ranks.  They  attracted  his  at¬ 
tention  in  various  ways — some  because  their  duties 
threw  them  in  contact  with  him;  others  because  they  just 
happened  to  do  something  which  drew  his  attention. 
Once  you  had  drawn  Mr.  Patterson’s  attention  you 
either  got  a  promotion  or  got  out.  And  being  under  his 
eye  was  no  easy  affair,  for  then  you  would  get  orders. 

Getting  an  order  from  Mr.  Patterson  was  a  test  of  your 
discretion — you  had  to  discover  whether  it  was  a  literal 
order  to  be  carried  out  at  once  or  merely  a  try  to  see  how 
you  would  act.  In  short,  Mr.  Patterson’s  personal 
methods  with  men  defy  explanation;  they  are  a  mass  of 
contradictions,  just  as  the  man  himself  was  a  mass  of 
contradictions,  but  the  outstanding  principles  are  his  urg¬ 
ing  forward  at  hectic  pace  and  his  policy  of  meetings. 

Out  of  the  meetings  came  the  pyramid  system  of  or¬ 
ganization  and  the  teaching  through  the  eye,  all  of  which 
are  absolutely  original  with  Mr.  Patterson  and  at  the 
very  backbone  of  his  success  in  getting  hard,  coordinated 
work  out  of  men.  And  back  of  all  is  the  famous  Sugges¬ 
tion  system.  As  has  been  noted  many  times  before  in  this 
book,  Mr.  Patterson  was  an  adapter  rather  than  an 
originator.  His  genius  for  adapting  was  such  that  the 
result  amounted  to  a  new  idea  in  its  application,  and  in¬ 
deed  I  have  just  spoken  of  several  ideas  as  being  original 
with  him.  What  he  did  was  to  take  an  idea  out  of  its 
setting,  put  it  into  his  own  setting,  and  then  change  it 
about — the  origin  got  lost. 

It  was  so  with  meetings;  Mr.  Patterson,  as  soon  as  he 
made  a  decision,  as  a  rule  began  to  doubt  its  correctness 


MEN  AND  MANAGEMENT 


237 


and  he  would  at  once  consult  with  others.  Sometimes — 
this  was  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  business — he  would 
want  to  talk  over  plans  before  putting  them  into  effect. 
He  talked  over  almost  everything  with  his  brother,  he 
talked  over  shop  affairs  with  the  men,  and,  as  has  already 
been  described,  he  quickly  began  to  hold  conventions  of 
salesmen  in  order  to  talk  over  sales  methods. 

At  the  convention  of  1886  he  was  trying  to  illustrate  a 
point  with  his  hands  when  it  suddenly  struck  him  that  he 
could  make  his  point  the  more  clearly  in  school  fashion 
with  a  blackboard.  He  sent  out  for  a  blackboard  and 
thereafter  he  never  held  a  meeting  without  a  blackboard 
on  which  to  draw  a  diagram  of  what  he  was  talking  about. 
Out  of  this  grew  the  whole  theory  of  teaching  through  the 
eye — a  theory  that  ran  through  everything  which  Mr. 
Patterson  did.  Describing  it,  he  once  said: 

“One  day  years  ago,  in  the  Dayton  high  school,  the 
school  board  paid  us  a  visit.  It  was  an  occasion  when  we 
were  all  expected  to  make  our  best  showing.  The  teacher 
told  me  to  explain  a  rather  involved  calculation.  I  asked 
if  I  might  use  the  blackboard — my  first  teacher  had  taught 
me  from  the  blackboard.  Instead  of  merely  putting 
down  the  figures,  I  drew  a  diagram  and  from  it  explained 
how  the  results  came.  In  effect,  I  dramatized  the  prob¬ 
lem.  It  was  all  very  simple,  and  I  adopted  the  graphic 
method  only  because  I  had  found  that  I  could  understand 
things  better  and  talk  about  them  more  clearly  if  I  had 
something  concrete  before  me.  My  demonstration  was 
the  hit  of  the  day. 

“  Later  I  taught  school  in  the  White  Mountains.  I  found 
that  the  pupils  understood  even  the  most  difficult  prob¬ 
lems  if  I  drew  both  the  right  and  the  wrong  way  side  by 
side  on  the  blackboard  and  then  told  why  the  one  was 


238 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


correct  and  the  other  was  not.  They  did  not  forget  the 
two  contrasting  pictures. 

“Those  incidents  are  at  the  base  of  my  whole  system  of 
business  teaching;  they  are  the  foundation  of  its  main 
principles : 

“‘1.  Teach  through  the  eye. 

“‘2.  Contrast  the  right  with  the  wrong  way.’” 

And  here  is  his  own  description  of  his  full  method — a 
method  which  is  to-day  used  in  many  quarters  and  which 
goes  through  everything  that  the  N.  C.  R.  undertakes: 

“Business  is  only  a  form  of  teaching.  You  teach 
people  to  desire  your  product;  that  is  selling.  You  teach 
workmen  how  to  make  the  right  product;  that  is  manu¬ 
facturing.  You  teach  others  to  cooperate  with  you;  that 
is  organization.  To  succeed  in  business  it  is  necessary 
to  make  the  other  man  see  things  as  you  see  them.  I 
say  ‘as  you  see  them’ — which  means  that  you  yourself  must 
first  see  and  believe  before  you  can  tell  another.  I  have 
been  trying  all  of  my  life,  first  to  see  for  myself,  and  then 
to  get  other  people  to  see  with  me.  The  measure  in  which 
I  have  succeeded  is  the  measure  of  the  progress  of  my 
company.  The  methods  which  I  shall  set  down  here  are 
those  which  have  proved  best  with  me — and  I  have  tried 
many  ways. 

“One  of  the  many  advantages  of  teaching  through  the 
eye  is  its  exactness.  Accuracy  comes  to  me  as  a  heritage 
from  my  parents  and  grandparents;  one  of  them  was  a 
surveyor  and  all  were  brought  up  in  the  school  of  Scotch 
precision.  I  like  to  be  definite.  I  have  often  heard  a 
speaker  ask,  ‘Do  you  see  my  point?’  He  wants  to  know 
if  the  hearer  actually  has  the  point  in  eye  as  well  as  mind, 
that  he  understands  it  well  enough  to  make  a  mental 
picture.  Well,  then,  why  not  draw  the  picture?  In- 


MEN  AND  MANAGEMENT  239 

stead  of  asking  if  the  point  is  seen,  why  not  draw  the 
point  so  that  it  cannot  help  being  seen? 

“An  argument  is  good  according  to  the  amount  of  the 
dramatic  which  it  contains.  Of  course  the  particular 
situation  limits  the  dramatization,  but  I  have  found  that 
words,  whether  written  or  spoken,  without  some  kind  of 
drawing  on  which  to  centre  attention,  are  not  effective. 

“The  very  first  advertising  that  we  put  out  after  start¬ 
ing  the  N.  C.  R.  taught  me  this  lesson.  I  had  some  five 
thousand  circulars  printed  describing  the  new  machine 
and  what  it  would  do.  I  told  what  it  had  done  for  me  and 
how  it  could  prevent  business  leaks.  It  was  a  good  cir¬ 
cular,  but  it  did  not  contain  a  picture  of  the  cash  reg¬ 
ister.  Having  put  the  envelope  into  the  mails,  we 
hurriedly  hired  two  extra  men  to  answer  inquiries.  We 
waited,  and  we  might  be  waiting  still,  for  we  did  not  get  a 
single  inquiry.  Nobody  knew  what  we  were  talking 
about ! 

“It  should  be  self-evident  that  you  cannot  convince  a 
man  if  he  does  not  know  what  point  you  are  trying  to 
make — if  he  is  thinking  of  something  different  from  what 
you  want  him  to  think  about.  And  it  is  right  here  that 
the  spoken  words  fail,  for  not  only  is  it  not  enough 
in  itself  to  hold  attention,  but  there  is  no  certainty  that 
your  hearer  takes  the  same  meaning  from  the  words 
that  you  intend  to  convey.  Very  few  people  understand 
words.  The  uneducated  man,  for  instance,  may  have 
only  a  local  and  limited  meaning  for  a  word  which  brings 
up  dozens  of  ideas  to  the  more  educated  man.  Take  a 
very  simple  instance.  ‘Food’  to  a  baby  means  milk  or, 
at  the  most,  two  or  three  articles;  ‘food’  to  a  labouring 
man  has  a  somewhat  broader  meaning  because  he  is 
accustomed  to  a  wider  variety  than  an  infant;  but  ‘food’ 


240 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


to  a  chef  calls  up  thousands  of  delicacies  prepared  in  many 
different  ways  and  as  something  primarily  to  prepare 
rather  than  something  for  himself  to  eat. 

6 ‘In  order  to  confine  the  subject,  to  make  sure  of  what  is 
under  discussion  and  to  nail  down  the  points  as  made,  I 
evolved  the  pyramid  form  of  diagram.  Here  is  how  it 
works.  First  I  draw  a  triangle  and  label  its  apex  with  the 
point  I  intend  to  make.  I  start  with  the  conclusion  so 
that  there  can  be  no  mistake  as  to  what  I  am  about.  The 
conclusion  is  the  result  of  certain  other  secondary  conclu¬ 
sions  or  facts.  I  find  that  most  ideas  divide  themselves 
into  five  parts,  which  is  a  particularly  convenient  num¬ 
ber,  because  in  speaking  of  the  parts  it  is  possible  also  to 
use  the  five  fingers  of  the  hand  to  check  off  the  points  as 
made.  Therefore  I  divide  the  base  of  the  triangle  or 
pyramid  into  five  divisions  and  at  the  head  of  each  divi¬ 
sion  write  its  name.  The  sum  of  the  divisions  is  the 
main  conclusion  which  is  to  be  proved.  Naturally,  each 
of  the  five  sectional  conclusions  is  composed  of  certain 
facts  or  leading-up  arguments.  I  list  them  in  columns 
under  the  subheads.  The  result  is  a  structure  of  five 
pillars  of  elemental  facts  each  supporting  its  capital  fact. 
On  the  capitals  rest  the  pyramid,  at  the  apex  of  which  is 
the  conclusion.  It  is  all  a  simple  process  of  analysis. 

“How  does  this  pyramid  help  a  talk?  Take  a  concrete 
case.  Suppose  you  want  to  have  your  employees  take 
better  advantage  of  their  opportunities.  I  make  a  pyra¬ 
mid  headed:  ‘Ways  I  Can  Improve  Myself,’  T  Am  a 
Member  of  the  Double-Up  Club,’  or  give  it  some  other 
title  that  states  the  object  which  is  to  be  attained.  The 
end  is  to  be  reached  through  the  man  bettering  himself 
simultaneously  in  a  number  of  ways.  These  ways  are  the 
natural  divisions  of  life  and  are  five:  Physical,  Mental, 


MEN  AND  MANAGEMENT 


241 


Moral,  Financial,  and  Social.  Under  each  of  these  five 
columns  I  list  the  things  to  be  done;  that  is,  if  a  man  im¬ 
proves  on  all  of  the  points  listed  he  is  greatly  helped  in 
striving  to  attain  the  object  set  out  at  the  head  of  the 
table.  I  simply  put  down  in  black  and  white  in  a  logical 
diagram  the  various  things  to  do  for  self-improvement  and 
to  attain  the  very  desirable  end  which  heads  the  diagram 
as  an  object.  I  take  out  all  speculation  as  to  right  or 
wrong  and  show  the  man  what  he  may  gain  by  absorbing 
the  principles.  The  conclusion  also  answers  the  eternal 
question:  ‘Where  do  I  come  in?’ 

“You  can  convince  yourself  by  these  methods  and  you 
can  convince  others  so  thoroughly  that  they  will  go  out 
and  convince  the  public. 

“It  also  has  many  other  uses.  For  instance,  you  can 
diagram  the  functions  of  a  department  or  an  individual. 
Any  subject  is  the  better  for  being  set  out  in  this  kind  of 
half  geometry  and  every  element  of  doubt  is  removed. 
In  each  department  we  have  cabinets  containing  charts 
showing  the  scope  and  the  duties  of  the  department,  the 
head,  and  his  assistants.  Every  report  is  thus  pyramided 
and,  if  it  is  of  a  permanent  nature,  it  is  printed  on  card¬ 
board  and  swung  into  the  cabinet.  The  entire  informa¬ 
tion  concerning  the  activities  of  any  department  hangs 
in  its  meeting  room,  and  one  has  but  to  swing  out  the 
proper  panel  to  know  in  a  moment  what  has  been  done  and 
what  is  under  way.  We  reduce  everything  to  its  im¬ 
portant  facts  and  put  it  up  on  the  wall. 

“One  of  the  first  articles  of  furniture  that  I  bought  was 
a  blackboard  on  which  to  make  these  demonstrations; 
eight  or  nine  years  ago  we  substituted  great  pads  of  paper 
mounted  on  artists’  easels  and  now  every  discussion  on 
every  subject  goes  forward  pictorially  as  well  as  orally. 


242 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


When  we  decide  on  anything  we  post  it  up  as  settled  and 
go  on  to  something  else. 

“The  pyramid  is  only  one  of  the  various  ways  of  putting 
over  the  idea  or  of  holding  attention.  Another  is  the 
caricature.  Little  grotesque  drawings  are  wonderfully 
effective.  I  have  a  whole  system  of  cartooning  or  ‘chart 
talks/  A  circle  with  a  dollar  mark  means  a  piece  of 
money,  a  bag  marked  with  a  dollar  is  a  lot  of  money. 
Many  good  effects  can  be  had  with  moon  faces.  Draw  a 
circle,  put  in  a  few  dashes  for  the  eyes,  nose,  mouth,  and 
ears.  Twisting  these  lines  gives  the  expressions;  the 
out-of-date  man  has  the  corners  of  his  mouth  down;  the 
chipper,  up-to-date  fellow  has  the  curves  up.  The 
drawings  are  homely,  but  the  most  effective  cartoonists 
are  not  the  men  who  make  the  prettiest  pictures;  the 
thing  is  to  express  the  idea  and  the  contrast. 

“The  big  bag  and  the  little  bag  of  money,  side  by  side,- 
are  the  natural  heads  for  the  right  way  as  opposed  to  the 
wrong  way;  the  one  brings  much  money,  the  other  little 
money.  If  you  sketch  these  rapidly  as  you  talk,  there  is 
no  danger  of  people  letting  their  minds  wander;  they  are 
bound  to  look  at  what  you  are  doing  and  thus  to  go  with 
you  through  the  successive  stages  to  the  point  you  want 
to  make.  And  again  the  funny  figures  put  people  in 
good  humour. 

“I  hold  that  one  cannot  rely  on  speech  alone  to  make 
himself  understood  or  to  gain  and  hold  attention.  A 
dramatic  supplement  is  needed.  It  is  better  to  supple¬ 
ment  whenever  possible  with  pictures  which  show  the 
right  and  wrong  way;  diagrams  are  more  convincing  than 
mere  words,  and  pictures  are  more  convincing  than  dia¬ 
grams.  The  ideal  presentation  of  a  subject  is  one  in  which 
every  sub-division  is  pictured  and  the  words  are  used  only 


MEN  AND  MANAGEMENT 


243 


to  connect  them.  I  early  found  that  in  dealing  with  men 
a  picture  was  worth  more  than  anything  I  could  say.  I 
used  to  employ  an  artist  to  hang  around  in  the  shops  with 
me  and  quietly  make  sketches  of  things  that  were  not  be¬ 
ing  done  right.  Then  the  sketches  were  made  into  draw¬ 
ings  and  I  called  the  men  together  and  showed  them 
exactly  what  they  were  doing.  When  I  heard  of  the 
stereopticon  I  immediately  bought  one  and  projected  the 
drawings  on  the  screen,  which  of  course  made  them  even 
more  effective  than  on  paper.  Then  came  the  moving 
picture.  I  think  that  I  had  one  of  the  first  machines  ever 
made  and  now  we  have  a  big  department  and  many  mo¬ 
tion-picture  films,  and  more  than  60,000  coloured  stere¬ 
opticon  slides. 

“I  have  spoken  of  dramatic  effects.  They  are  not  the 
result  of  chance  but  of  study,  and  must  be  either  lifelike 
or  caricatures.  There  is  no  betwixt  and  between,  for 
that  will  not  hold  attention.  I  have  often  acted  through 
the  parts  in  a  regular  drama — a  real  play  composed  to 
bring  out  some  point — with  the  other  executive  officers  of 
the  company  taking  leading  parts.  When  I  want  to  teach 
a  group  of  salesmen  the  proper  approach  and  the  demon¬ 
stration,  I  have  a  grocery  store  or  some  other  kind  of  store 
fitted  out  in  detail.  The  grocery  store  has  real  goods  on 
its  shelves,  the  shoe  store  contains  real  shoes.  A  grocer 
gets  a  better  idea  of  what  you  are  doing  if  he  finds  that  the 
can  of  tomatoes  on  the  shelf  is  one  such  as  might  be  found 
in  his  store  and  not  a  mere  dummy.  A  playlet  given  two 
years  ago  in  which  I  took  part  as  a  salesman  gave  the 
approach,  demonstration,  sale,  and  installation  of  our  then 
latest-model  cash  register.  I  played  it  because  I  had 
discovered  that  the  agents  were  getting  away  from  the 
fundamentals  of  salesmanship.  It  started  with  the 


244 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


evolution  of  a  store,  the  call  of  the  assistant  to  the  sales 
agent,  the  visit  of  the  sales  agent,  the  demonstration,  the 
call  of  the  merchant  and  his  wife  with  the  agent  on  the 
banker  and  then  on  the  indorser  of  the  note  with  which  he 
proposed  to  borrow  the  money  to  pay  for  the  register,  of 
their  visit  to  the  landlord  for  improvements,  and  so  on 
through  every  event  which  would  be  apt  to  happen  in  the 
sale  and  installation  of  a  register.  That  was  so  effective 
that  we  had  it  made  into  a  film  for  teaching  purposes. 

“The  dramatic  points  do  not  come  by  accident.  If 
every  man  trying  to  put  over  an  idea  to  one  man  or  to 
10,000  would  study  his  setting,  he  could  achieve  the 
interest-holding  moments. 

“Once  when  I  found  an  audience  of  agents  getting  away 
from  me,  I  held  up  a  ten-dollar  bill  before  them,  tore  it  to 
bits,  and  threw  it  on  the  floor.  The  people  sat  up,  and 
then  I  said: 

“‘Did  you  think  that  I  was  going  to  waste  that  bill? 
I  was  only  trying  to  show  you  what  you  were  wasting  by 
not  giving  attention/  Turning  to  an  assistant,  I  con¬ 
tinued  :  ‘  J ust  pick  up  the  pieces  of  that  bill  and  paste  them 
together/” 


CHAPTER  XV 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 

THE  impromptu  meetings  in  the  factory  shortly 
became  regular  fixtures,  just  as  the  conventions 
of  salesmen  became  a  regular  fixture,  but  they 
were  not  considered  of  high  importance  until  suddenly  a 
large  shipment  of  rejected  registers  came  back  from  Eng¬ 
land — all  defective.  The  registers  did  not  add  correctly, 
and  a  register  which  will  not  add  correctly  is  something 
worse  than  useless.  Then,  as  has  been  described  in  the 
chapters  on  the  factory  management,  the  revolution  be¬ 
gan  in  the  factory. 

Mr.  Patterson  moved  his  desk  out  among  the  machin¬ 
ery  and  at  once  he  began  in  his  characteristic  way  to  work 
through  the  men  toward  the  product.  He  began  to  call 
meetings  of  the  foremen  and  job  foremen.  He  held  them 
in  the  “Schoolhouse  under  the  Elm”  where  the  sales 
school  was  held.  He  went  beyond  the  calling  together  of 
department  heads  and  began  to  hold  meetings  of  the 
whole  factory  force  in  an  abandoned  Jewish  synagogue  at 
the  corner  of  Fourth  and  Jefferson  streets.  There  he 
taught  what  good  work  would  do  and  what  waste  would 
do.  And  he  taught  through  the  eye.  He  had  stereopti- 
con  slides  made,  and  long  before  motion  pictures  had  been 
invented  the  N.  C.  R.  possessed  slides  of  every  impor¬ 
tant  operation  in  the  plant  as  well  as  slides  picturing  all 
the  steps  in  the  progress  of  the  company.  Mr.  Patterson 

245 


246  JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

was  probably  the  first  to  take  up  the  industrial  use  of  the 
motion  picture. 

Exactly  as  the  salesmen  were  taught  to  sell,  so  the 
people  in  the  factory  were  taught  to  work — and  the 
reason  for  working.  And  in  the  synagogue  began  the 
idea  of  holding  night  classes  so  that  the  employees  could 
learn  how  to  get  better  jobs  for  themselves.  The  whole 
atmosphere  gradually  became  one  of  teaching  and  as 
such  it  continued — with  the  N.  C.  R.  as  a  university  and 
with  every  executive  and  employee,  from  Mr.  Patterson 
down,  as  students. 

The  first  formal  organization  for  factory  work  was 
known  as  the  Advance  Club  which  was  shortly  changed 
into  the  Progress  Club.  This  club  met  every  Friday 
from  10:30  a.  m.  until  noon  in  the  chapel  and  every  fore¬ 
man,  every  head  of  department,  and  every  executive 
was  expected  to  be  present.  When  Mr.  Patterson  was  in 
Dayton,  he  presided,  and  the  programme  was  printed  in 
advance  with  the  five  most  important  subjects  for  con¬ 
sideration  put  in  capital  letters  at  the  head  of  the  list. 
Every  subject  connected  with  the  welfare  of  the  com¬ 
pany  came  before  these  meetings  and  the  members  were 
expected  to  have  opinions — for  one  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  fa¬ 
vourite  schemes  to  compel  attention  was  suddenly  to  pick 
out  some  member  who  did  not  look  interested  and  ask 
him  for  a  full  opinion  on  the  subject  under  discussion. 
And  often  when  a  meeting  closed  he  would  ask  all  present 
to  fill  out  slips  telling  what  they  had  learned  at  the  meet¬ 
ing.  More  than  one  executive  has  parted  from  the  com¬ 
pany  because  he  could  not  understand  why  the  meetings 
were  important. 

These  Advance  Club  meetings  gave  a  common  ground 
between  the  factory  and  the  office  and  sales  forces  and 


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First  v  ice-president  and  genera]  manager  of  the  National  Cash  Register  Co, 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 


247 


also  they  gave  Mr.  Patterson  his  first  idea  of  what  was 
really  wrong  with  the  system  of  organization.  He  drew 
a  pyramid  showing  the  company’s  activities  and  he  said 
that  the  pyramid  was  resting  on  its  point  instead  of  on 
its  base — that  the  whole  organization  was  resting  on  him 
whereas  he  ought  to  be  on  top  directing  the  organization, 
and  every  man  in  an  executive  position  should  be  on  the 
top  of  his  own  pyramid  and  in  control  of  it. 

That  gave  Mr.  Patterson  the  new  idea  of  deliberate 
delegation  of  duties;  the  old  idea  of  business  was  that  the 
executive  should  delegate  to  others  only  that  for  which 
he  could  not  find  time  himself.  The  new  idea  of  Mr. 
Patterson’s  was  that  an  executive  should  do  only  what 
he  could  not  delegate — that  the  chief  business  of  an  ex¬ 
ecutive  was  to  think  and  to  plan.  Hence  his  motto: 

“Never  do  anything  if  you  can  get  someone  else  to  do 
it.” 

He  carried  out  this  principle  literally;  often  he  would 
drop  into  a  department  and  ask  the  head: 

“Who  would  look  after* your  work  if  you  were  away?” 

Perhaps  the  manager  would  hesitate;  then  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson  would  come  back  sharply  with  something  like 
this: 

“You  are  away  now.  Stay  away  for  a  few  days  and 
see  what  happens.  You  are  not  hired  to  manage  this 
department.  I  can  hire  a  manager  for  five  dollars  a 
week.  You  are  hired  to  think  and  to  act  as  a  buffer.” 

Once,  just  to  test  this  theory,  he  took  out  ten  or  twelve 
of  the  most  important  executives  in  both  office  and  factory. 
The  machine  ran  on  just  as  before. 

This  is  the  reason  why  Mr.  Patterson  himself  was  able 
to  spend  so  little  time  in  Dayton  and  the  reason  why  all 
the  more  important  executives  have  always  been  able  to 


248 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


spend  more  of  their  time  out  holding  conventions  through 
the  country  or  in  Europe  than  at  their  desks  in  the  office. 
It  was  Mr.  Patterson’s  conviction  that  any  executive 
worth  paying  a  high  salary  to  ought  to  be  more  useful 
gathering  ideas  than  administering  details.  This  is  not 
to  say  that  the  men  were  not  expected  to  know  every 
detail — it  was  simply  that  they  were  were  not  expected  to 
administer  the  details.  Mr.  Patterson  himself  knew 
every  detail.  When  he  landed  at  San  Francisco  from  a 
two-years’  trip  around  the  world,  the  first  question  he 
asked  of  the  general  manager — full  of  important  topics 
* — was: 

“Have  the  roots  of  that  big  tree  been  fed?” 

He  once  drew  up  his  principles  of  management  as  ap¬ 
plied  to  the  N.  C.  R.  and  they  are  of  general  interest  and 
application,  for  they  really  have  in  them  nothing  essen¬ 
tially  peculiar  to  the  N.  C.  R. 

“1.  An  organization  should  have  but  one  head.  Cen¬ 
tralized  authority  means  no  red  tape,  no  delay  in  making 
decisions.  An  army  cannot  win  victories  with  divided 
authority.  The  same  thing  is  true  in  business.  There 
must  be  someone  to  lead,  to  decide,  to  be  the  head. 
Every  business  needs  a  leader. 

6 ‘2.  Everything  is  done  to  keep  things  moving  and 
save  time.  Nothing  is  so  valuable  as  time.  Materials 
are  carried  from  one  department  to  another  on  trucks. 
Modern  electric  trucks  have  replaced  those  dependent 
upon  man-power.  This  saves  time  and  labour  and  en¬ 
ables  us  to  keep  so  many  people  busy  in  useful  work. 

“3.  This  company  has  found  that  it  pays  to  have  best 
working  conditions.  Employees  are  entitled  to  decent, 
comfortable  surroundings  at  their  work.  What  is  done 
is  but  justice.  The  more  we  do  for  our  employees,  the 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 


249 


better  work  they  can  do.  The  more  they  do  for  the 
company,  the  more  we  are  able  to  do  for  them. 

4 4 4.  Much  of  the  work  in  this  factory  is  done  with  the 
aid  of  machinery.  Improved  machinery  has  enabled  us 
to  do  many  things  more  quickly  and  better  than  they 
were  done  in  the  past.  It  enables  us  to  pay  high  wages 
and  still  sell  our  cash  registers  at  such  low  prices.  Ma¬ 
chinery  makes  men  dear,  their  products  cheap. 

44  5.  That  business  is  best  which  requires  the  least 
attention  from  the  head.  The  pyramid  plan  of  organiza¬ 
tion  is  used  at  this  factory.  Everyone  has  certain  duties 
and  responsibilities.  This  permits  the  management  to 
give  a  part  of  their  time  to  planning  for  the  future. 

44  6.  Time  off  because  of  sickness  is  the  same  as  money 
lost  by  the  employee  and  the  company.  Surgeons, 
doctors,  and  dentists  help  keep  N.  C.  R.  employees  well. 
They  look  after  injuries,  sickness,  bad  teeth,  and  carry  on 
a  campaign  of  health  education  in  the  factory  and  in  the 
home. 

44  7.  When  a  few  men  try  to  carry  the  entire  load  the 
business  suffers.  It  does  not  progress  as  it  should.  When 
everyone  shoulders  his  part  of  the  responsibility  it  is  much 
easier  to  go  ahead.  Great  tasks  can  only  be  accom¬ 
plished  by  the  assistance  of  all  parts  of  an  organization. 

44 8.  Fifty  thousand  persons  visit  our  factory  each 
year.  They  see  how  cash  registers  are  made,  the  people 
who  make  them,  the  good  materials  used,  the  improved 
machinery,  and  our  welfare  work.  These  visitors  tell  the 
world  about  the  N.  C.  R.  and  our  product.  This  helps 
to  sell  more  cash  registers. 

44 9.  The  best  way  to  teach  is  through  the  eye.  It  is 
hard  to  retain  what  we  hear,  but  a  man  remembers  what 
he  sees.  The  nerves  from  the  eye  to  the  brain  are  twenty- 


250 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


two  times  as  strong  as  the  nerves  from  the  ear  to  the 
brain.  We  get  87  per  cent,  of  our  education  through 
our  eyes. 

“10.  Our  Test  Department  carefully  examines  the 
materials  used  to  make  National  Cash  Registers.  We 
believe  that  nothing  is  too  good  for  the  merchants  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  who  use  these  machines.  Each  register 
is  rigidly  inspected  several  times  as  it  is  built. 

“11.  We  found  that  people  do  the  best  work  when 
they  are  best  cared  for.  Nothing  is  more  important  to 
workers  than  good  food.  Three  dining  rooms  are  oper¬ 
ated  for  our  employees.  Warm,  substantial,  well-cooked 
meals  are  furnished  at  cost,  and  often  less  than  cost. 

“12.  Much  of  the  growth  of  this  business  is  due  to  the 
constant  improvement  of  our  product.  For  thirty-six 
years  every  effort  has  been  made  to  make  National  Cash 
Registers  meet  the  needs  of  merchants  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.  We  are  never  satisfied,  but  are  always  trying  to 
improve. 

“13.  Untidiness  causes  a  great  waste  of  time  and 
lowers  the  morale  of  employees.  Carelessness  means 
poor  workmanship.  It  reduces  profits  and  delays  wage 
increases.  Both  workers  and  owners  pay  for  it.  Keeping 
things  in  order  saves  time  and  adds  to  the  efficiency  of 
the  entire  organization. 

“14.  Workers  are  entitled  to  decent  and  comfortable 
surroundings  at  their  work.  Good  working  conditions 
keep  workers  healthy  and  happy  and  add  to  their  self- 
respect.  No  employer  can  afford  to  provide  work  places 
that  injure  the  efficiency  of  employees.  When  workers 
are  contented  they  do  more  and  better  work.” 

As  the  years  went  on,  the  idea  of  meetings  grew.  The 
little  chapel  was  christened  “The  House  of  Usefulness” 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 


251 


and  out  of  it  sprang  many  clubs.  A  little  building  near  by 
was  taken  over  as  an  officers’  club,  where  all  the  officers 
of  the  company  met  daily  for  luncheon  to  talk  over  affairs 
and  sometimes  to  hear  speakers  from  the  outside.  “The 
House  of  Usefulness”  became  too  small  for  the  meetings 
and  the  attic  of  Building  No.  1,  which  had  been  fitted  as  a 
dining  room  for  women  employees,  was  used  as  a  meeting 
place.  Then  the  east  end  of  the  building  was  turned  into 
a  lecture  hall — “Advance  Club  Hall.”  When  Building 
No.  3  was  finished,  part  of  it  was  turned  into  a  large 
schoolroom — an  unheard-of  idea  at  the  time.  Many 
manufacturers  inquired  whether  Mr.  Patterson  was  run¬ 
ning  a  business  or  a  school.  His  invariable  reply  was: 

“Business  is  only  teaching.” 

Next,  in  1905,  came  “Welfare  Hall”  which  was  primar¬ 
ily  a  dining  room  for  the  whole  force.  Changing  the  hall 
from  a  dining  room  into  an  auditorium  was  inconvenient, 
so  Mr.  Patterson  decided  to  build  a  “schoolhouse.”  He 
completed  the  first  building  in  1912  in  the  form  of  a  Greek 
temple,  carrying  out  the  pyramid  idea  in  the  fagade. 
That  building  seated  four  hundred  and  fifty  and  before 
it  was  completed  it  proved  to  be  too  small.  It  was  en¬ 
larged  to  hold  more  than  a  thousand  people,  but  still  it 
was  too  small,  and  just  before  Mr.  Patterson’s  death  he 
had  work  started  on  an  almost  complete  rebuilding  to 
double  the  capacity,  and  the  result  is  perhaps  the  finest 
theatre  building  in  the  country.  It  is  known  simply  as 
“The  Schoolhouse,”  but  it  is  the  centre  of  every  sort  of 
activity  from  sales  conventions  and  addresses  by  promi¬ 
nent  visitors  to  concerts  on  the  fine  pipe  organ.  Every 
day  at  the  luncheon  hour  a  motion-picture  show  is  given, 
which  is  free  to  any  one  who  cares  to  enter.  No  admission 
is  ever  charged  to  N.  C.  R.  entertainments  and  attendance 


252 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


at  them  is  never  restricted  to  employees.  But  more  of 
this  in  another  chapter. 

On  every  subject  that  came  up  Mr.  Patterson  held  a 
meeting.  ‘  He  had  an  amphitheatre  fitted  up  in  the  ad¬ 
ministration  building  for  small  meetings  of,  say,  less  than 
fifty  people.  He  would  call  the  factory  men  into  advertis¬ 
ing  meetings  and  the  advertising  men  into  factory  meet¬ 
ings.  Whenever  he  had  an  idea  he  wanted  to  test  out, 
he  called  a  meeting,  and  invariably  when  the  men  sum¬ 
moned  had  assembled  his  first  question  was: 

4 4 Who  else  ought  to  be  here?  Who  else  could  learn 
something  here?” 

And  then  he  would  send  out  a  few  more  summonses — 
for  summonses  they  were.  A  man  had  to  drop  whatever 
he  was  doing  and  come. 

Out  of  the  plan  to  hold  forth  rewards  for  thinking  came 
the  suggestion  system  for  the  factory  force,  the  profit- 
sharing  plan  for  both  the  factory  and  office,  and  the 
famous  Hundred  Point  Club  for  the  salesmen.  The  sug¬ 
gestion  system  was  another  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  new  ideas 
and  it  is  best  described  in  his  own  words: 

“You  do  not  get  full  value  out  of  the  wages  and  salaries 
that  you  pay  unless  there  is  a  return  in  addition  to  the 
number  of  hours  spent  in  actual  labour  at  specific  tasks. 
I  might  almost  say  that  full  value  is  not  received  unless 
each  employee  is  in  that  critical  and  yet  appreciative 
frame  of  mind  which  makes  for  close  observation  of  de¬ 
fects  and  which  leads  him  to  think  what  he  would  do 
if  he  were  a  manager,  a  head  of  a  department,  or  even  the 
president  of  the  company.  You  must  have  that  em¬ 
ployee’s  ideas  as  well  as  his  time. 

44  An  organization,  of  course,  is  essential  in  a  business 
of  any  size,  because  without  it  things  will  not  be  done; 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 


253 


but  the  big  striking  defect  in  an  organization — and  it  be¬ 
comes  more  and  more  glaring  as  its  size  increases — is  the 
restriction  of  ideas  to  a  comparatively  few  people  at  the 
head.  When  you  employ  five,  ten,  twenty,  or  even  one 
hundred  men,  you  can,  and  will  if  you  are  wise,  know  each 
of  these  men  intimately.  You  can  get  their  ideas  and 
also  learn  to  size  them  up. 

“Then  you  will  not  only  have  in  mind  the  men  who 
are  ripe  for  promotion,  for  the  assuming  of  greater  respon¬ 
sibilities,  but  also  you  will  have  a  hundred-headed  brain, 
for  you  should  be  able  to  gain  at  least  one  idea  from  each 
of  these  hundred  men. 

“Of  course  if  you  do  not  care  for  ideas  that  is  another 
matter,  and  in  such  case  it  might  not  be  a  bad  scheme  to 
quit  business  and  go  bury  yourself.  As  my  own  business 
grew,  I  found  greater  and  greater  difficulty  in  finding  out 
what  the  men  were  thinking  about  and  what  they  would 
do  better  if  they  had  a  chance.  I  recognized  that  I  was 
throwing  away  an  enormous  asset. 

“I  was  depending  solely  for  ideas  upon  myself  and  upon 
the  comparatively  few  men  about  me,  and  I  had  no  means 
of  knowing  who  were  the  bright  lads  scattered  throughout 
the  organization.  That  is,  I  was  not  only  throwing  away 
the  brains  of  about  five  thousand  people,  which  should 
have  been  concentrated  in  making  business  better,  but 
also  I  was  restricting  advancement  to  accident  or  length  of 
service. 

“When  the  business  was  smaller  I  used  to  travel  about 
through  th.e  shops  a  great  deal,  knowing  everyone,  and 
taking  pains  to  ask  them  if  they  had  anything  to  suggest. 
Then  I  had  them  in  meetings  and  I  called  for  suggestions, 
but  a  person  unused  to  speaking  will  often  be  too  embar¬ 
rassed  to  make  a  suggestion  in  meeting. 


254 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“The  subject  bothered  me  because  I  felt  that  I  was  los¬ 
ing  ideas,  and  if  there  is  any  one  thing  more  than  another 
that  I  do  want  in  ever-increasing  quantity  it  is  ideas.  One 
day,  now  nearly  twenty-five  years  ago,  going  through  the 
foundry  I  ran  across  a  man  cleaning  castings.  I  knew  him 
as  one  of  my  really  good  employees  in  the  coal  business 
some  years  before.  I  knew  he  was  too  good  a  man  to  be 
cleaning  castings,  so  I  asked  him: 

“ 4  You  used  to  have  a  lot  of  ideas — why  don’t  you  make 
a  few  suggestions  to  your  foreman  and  get  a  better  job?’ 

“T  would  like  to,’  he  answered,  ‘but  what  is  the  use? 
Nothing  that  I  said  would  ever  get  beyond  the  foreman.* 

“He  was  right.  I  had  not  realized  that  a  series  of 
walls  had  been  built  up  between  me  and  the  workers; 
that  those  immediately  below  me  had  a  wall  that  shut  off 
ideas  from  the  department  heads;  that  the  department 
heads  had  another  wall  that  shut  off  the  foremen;  the 
foremen  had  one  for  the  sub-foremen;  and  they  had  still 
another  for  the  workmen.  A  man  at  the  very  bottom 
would,  in  the  ordinary  course,  have  needed  the  agility 
of  a  Rocky  Mountain  goat  to  have  reached  me  with  a 
good  idea. 

“Now,  this  was  no  fault  of  the  foremen  or  of  any  of  the 
subordinates  because  it  is  perfectly  natural  that  a  man 
whose  whole  duty  is  the  carrying  out  of  orders  should  not 
welcome  suggestions  that  might  result  in  the  change  of  a 
system  to  which  he  had  become  accustomed.  And  there 
is  also  the  additional  fear,  held  by  so  many  men  down  the 
line,  that  if  a  fellow  under  him  is  too  good  he  will  get  his 
job.  This  is  a  wrong  but  a  perfectly  natural  attitude. 

“Out  of  this  incident  grew  the  suggestion  system  which 
has  grown  and  grown  until  in  one  year  some  3,200  sug¬ 
gestions  were  submitted  and  42  per  cent,  of  them  were 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 


255 


adopted.  Right  at  the  beginning  arose  the  question  of 
how  best  to  get  at  the  suggestions  and  whether  or  not  to 
include  complaints  against  prevailing  practices  upon  the 
same  basis  as  ideas  for  improvements. 

“We  decided  that  a  complaint  was  truly  a  suggestion 
leading  to  an  improvement,  and  therefore  to-day  both 
complaints  and  suggestions  are  on  the  same  basis.  We 
placed  all  over  the  factory  suggestion  boxes  in  which  any 
member  of  the  organization  might  place  his  idea  and  we 
gave  one  dollar  apiece  for  suggestions  or  complaints.  This 
did  not  work  out  well,  for,  although  it  gave  us  somewhat 
of  a  line  on  who  were  the  best  employees,  it  did  not  dis¬ 
criminate  enough  between  values,  and  step  by  step  we 
worked  out  the  system  that  is  in  force  to-day. 

“We  have  substituted  small  automatic  registers  for  the 
suggestion  boxes,  so  that  the  employee  writes  his  sugges¬ 
tion,  tears  off  the  slip,  and  the  carbon  is  contained  in  the 
machine.  It  is  a  protection  to  the  employee  and  also 
prevents  the  possible  loss  of  the  small  slip.  More  elab¬ 
orate  suggestions  may  be  submitted  on  blanks  provided 
for  that  purpose. 

“Instead  of  paying  for  a  suggestion  we  found  that 
greater  enthusiasm  was  aroused  and  more  suggestions 
offered  by  making  a  contest.  We  have  two  contests  in  each 
year,  one  ending  June  30th  and  the  other  December  31st. 
Twelve  hundred  dollars  is  offered  in  128  prizes;  the  best 
suggestion  adopted  receives  $100,  the  next  $75,  the  next 
$50,  the  next  $30,  the  next  three  $25  each,  the  next  six 
$20  each,  the  next  thirty -five  $10  each,  and  the  next 
eighty  $5  each.  Those  are  the  individual  prizes. 

“Each  prize  winner  in  addition  receives  a  medal  and 
a  certificate  signed  by  the  president,  and  the  contest  is 
put  on  a  team  as  well  as  on  an  individual  basis  by  award- 


256 


JOHN  II.  PATTERSON 


ing  a  banner  to  the  prize  department.  The  points  con¬ 
sidered  in  awarding  the  banner  are: 

“1.  Total  prize  money  of  the  department. 

“2.  Number  of  prize  winners. 

“3.  Number  of  adopted  suggestions 

“4.  Average  prize  money  per  adopted  suggestion. 

“  5.  Average  prize  money  per  employee  in  the  depart¬ 
ment. 

“The  handling  of  suggestions  has  now  been  made 
a  separate  department,  with  a  committee  composed  of 
department  heads  to  pass  upon  the  prizes.  Each  sug¬ 
gestion  as  it  comes  to  the  Suggestion  Department  is  read 
and  classified  according  to  the  subject  with  which  it  deals. 
It  is  then  acknowledged  to  the  employee,  entered  upon 
his  record  card,  and  copied  without  his  signature  in  order 
that  those  who  pass  upon  the  suggestions  may  not  know 
who  makes  them.  It  is  then  sent  to  the  proper  depart¬ 
ment  for  investigation  and  a  report  is  made. 

“When  a  suggestion  is  not  adopted  a  note  is  sent  to  the 
employee  telling  him  why  it  was  not  good.  For  instance, 
here  is  one  that  was  not  accepted: 

“‘The  merchant  does  not  like  the  method  of  putting  on 
the  ribbon,  which  necessitates  the  soiling  of  his  hands  with 
the  ink.  Should  not  this  be  remedied?’ 

“Answer:  ‘We  supply  the  merchant  with  twenty  inches 
of  ribbon,  which  lasts  indefinitely.  You  have  to  soil  your 
hands  in  putting  on  an  automobile  tire.’ 

“Or  another  that  was  taken: 

“‘Could  I  suggest  that  when  a  member  of  the  N.  C.  R. 
goes  into  a  store  not  using  a  National  Cash  Register  he 
report  it  to  the  superintendents  as  well  as  to  the  office?’ 

“Answer:  ‘A  good  idea.’ 

“If  the  suggestion  is  good,  it  is  put  into  effect  as  soon 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 


257 


as  practicable,  and  if  an  employee  thinks  that  his  idea 
was  not  given  the  proper  attention  he  may  ask  for  a  rein¬ 
vestigation  and  one  is  always  made. 

“In  awarding  the  prizes,  all  of  the  adopted  suggestions 
submitted  by  an  employee  are  considered  together,  so 
that  the  winner  of  the  first  prize  may  not  always  be  the 
man  who  made  the  biggest  suggestion.  The  winner  may 
be  an  employee  who  has  submitted  a  large  number  of 
minor  suggestions. 

“We  also  found  that  frequently  two  or  more  employees 
will  submit  similar  suggestions.  In  that  case  we  credit 
the  idea  to  the  one  who  first  gives  it;  this  is  one  of  the 
excellent  features  of  the  autograph  because  that  deter¬ 
mines  the  priorities  beyond  question. 

“All  employees  of  the  company  except  supervisors, 
department  heads,  foremen,  job  foremen,  section  heads, 
and  sales  agents  are  eligible  for  prizes,  and  each  employee 
is  furnished  with  the  complete  rules  and  instructions. 
We  ask  for  help  from  them  on  all  divisions  of  the  business 
and  most  particularly  as  follows: 

“  (a)  Increasing  cooperation. 

“  (b)  Improving  the  quality  of  our  work. 

“  (c)  Decreasing  the  cost  without  decreasing  the  daily 
wage  and  lowering  the  quality. 

“  (d)  Eliminating  unnecessary  and  duplicating  work. 

“  (e)  Better  plans  for  shop  work. 

“  (f)  Increasing  the  sales  of  our  product. 

“  (g)  Improving  blank  forms. 

“  (h)  Improving  the  health  of  our  employees. 

“(i)  Additional  safety  precautions  to  make  the  work 
less  dangerous. 

“  (j)  Using  cheaper  tools  and  operations  to  accomplish 
the  same  result. 


258 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“The  cash  value  of  the  suggestions  has  been  enormous. 
It  is  impossible  to  say  what  they  have  amounted  to  since 
the  beginning  of  the  business,  because  some  new  plan 
which  may  have  saved  in  operations  two  years  ago  may 
not  be  in  use  to-day  because  that  particular  thing  is  not 
being  made.  Therefore  the  saving  is  not  quite  a  cumula¬ 
tive  one,  but  I  may  say  that  most  of  the  mechanical 
improvements  in  the  cash  register  of  to-day  are  due  to 
suggestions  from  employees. 

“Take  a  typical  six  months.  The  number  of  sugges¬ 
tions  received  was  3,536;  the  number  of  suggestions 
adopted  was  1,317  or  37.2  per  cent,  scattered  among  587 
employees.  Of  these  128  received  prizes.  Of  the  adopted 
suggestions  68  were  such  that  the  dollars-and-cents  saving 
could  be  figured  and  that  saving  amounted  to  nearly 
$15,000  a  year. 

“The  suggestions  cover  the  entire  mechanical  and  sell¬ 
ing  operation  of  our  business,  and  although  I  regard  the 
financial  gain  as  highly  important,  I  do  not  think  that 
it  is  anything  like  as  important  as  that  other  gain  which 
we  cannot  measure  in  money — the  bringing  of  men  with 
ideas  to  top  positions  in  our  organization.  In  all  the 
important  offices  we  want  men  with  ideas  rather  than 
routine  experts,  because  you  can  pick  up  a  routine  man 
almost  anywhere  and  practically  any  one  can  be  trained 
to  handle  routine. 

“But  with  ideas  it  is  different.  It  may  very  well  be 
that  the  chap  with  the  most  active  mind  and  who  will 
do  the  most  to  promote  the  business  will  not  necessarily 
be  the  most  expert  with  his  hands.  Indeed,  the  best  idea 
men  are  not  commonly  the  most  expert  workmen.  I 
have  found  that  the  very  active  brain  does  not  as  a  rule 
seem  to  go  with  the  superskilled  hand. 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 


259 


“The  expert  workmen  are  highly  valuable  as  workmen, 
and  with  the  years  they  are  bound  to  be  recognized,  but 
the  idea  man  may  never  have  his  chance  if  there  is  not 
some  way  of  gathering  his  ideas. 

r  “Each  suggestion  is  entered  on  a  record  card  containing 
the  name  of  the  employee,  and  every  little  while  these 
cards  are  gone  over.  I  find  that  the  same  men  and  women 
turn  up  as  prize  winners  in  successive  contests  and  these 
people  then  place  themselves  in  line  for  promotion — and 
they  always  get  it.  Practically  every  one  of  our  present 
factory  executives  and  foremen  reached  his  position 
through  making  suggestions. 

“And,  in  addition  to  all  of  that,  the  morale  of  the  or¬ 
ganization  is  strengthened  and  the  enthusiasm  kept  up. 
The  employee  is  encouraged  to  observe,  think,  and  sug¬ 
gest,  and  that  alone  makes  a  better  man  of  him.  He 
knows  that  if  he  gets  into  the  limelight  through  his  sug¬ 
gestions  he  is  going  to  get  a  better  job  and  hence  he  will 
have  no  excuse  for  saying,  ‘No  matter  what  I  do  I  cannot 
get  any  further  along.’” 

The  profit-sharing  plan  has  been  many  years  in  the 
making  and  is  still  in  the  experimental  stage.  Mr. 
Patterson  approached  wages  never  with  the  thought  of 
how  little  he  could  pay,  but  first  to  see  how  much  he 
could  pay,  and  then  to  find  what  he  could  give  in  addition 
to  the  wages.  The  welfare  work  and  the  various  em¬ 
ployee  helps  were  not  in  place  of  wages — they  were  in 
addition  to  payments  which  were  uniformly  higher  than 
elsewhere  paid  for  the  same  sort  of  work.  The  plan  was 
put  into  operation  for  the  first  time  in  1917  and  in  its 
final  form  it  operates  in  this  fashion.  (The  executives 
under  the  plan  do  not  receive  salaries  quite  as  large  as 
they  might  receive  in  other  companies  of  similar  size — 


260 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


their  fortunes  depend  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  company, 
but  the  workingmen  have  their  shares  over  and  above  the 
highest  going  wages.) 

The  profit-sharing  plan  provides  that,  after  deducting 
from  the  year’s  profits  a  sum  equal  to  6  per  cent,  interest 
on  the  money  invested,  the  remainder  is  divided  equally 
between  the  company  and  the  employees.  The  half  that 
goes  to  the  company  is  used  for  buying  additional  land, 
buildings,  machinery,  inventions,  and  similar  expenditures 
necessary  in  an  expanding  business.  The  company  takes 
all  the  risk;  the  employees  take  none;  but  every  increase 
of  efficiency  or  elimination  of  waste  on  the  part  of  an  em¬ 
ployee  is  reflected  in  the  amount  of  the  profits  in  which 
he  shares. 

“The  amount  invested  by  the  company  is  determined  by 
deducting  all  indebtedness  from  the  valuation  of  buildings, 
land,  equipment,  stock,  outstanding  accounts,  etc.  Thou¬ 
sands' of  dollars’  worth  of  patents  and  ‘good  will’  are  not 
included  as  part  of  the  investment. 

“Three  distributions  of  the  profits  are  made  to  the 
employees  each  year.  Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  first 
six  months  of  the  year  a  conservative  estimate  of  the 
profits  is  made  and  the  money  distributed  to  the  employ¬ 
ees.  This  is  repeated  on  the  last  of  December.  After 
the  actual  profit  for  the  year  has  been  determined  by  an 
outside  firm  of  accountants,  distribution  is  made  of 
whatever  profits  remain. 

“The  profits  are  not  distributed  equally  to  employees 
regardless  of  the  importance  of  their  positions.  One  half 
of  the  employees’  share,  or  25  per  cent,  of  the  total  profits, 
is  given  to  the  managing  employees,  including  executives, 
department  heads,  and  their  assistants,  of  which  there 
are  approximately  600.  The  remaining  25  per  cent,  is 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 


261 


divided  between  all  other  employees  in  the  office  and 
factory,  with  the  exception  of  those  who  have  been  em¬ 
ployed  less  than  thirty  days. 

“In  other  words,  the  employees  are  divided  into  four 
groups:  Group  A,  containing  35  or  more  executives, 
receives  12  per  cent,  of  the  profits.  Group  B,  containing 
100  or  more  department  heads  and  foremen,  receives  5 
per  cent,  of  the  profits.  Group  C,  containing  400  or  more 
assistants  to  department  heads  and  job  foremen,  receives 
8  per  cent,  of  the  profits.  Group  D,  containing  5,000  or 
more  employees  not  holding  positions  of  authority,  re¬ 
ceives  25  per  cent,  of  the  profits.  Group  E  consists  of 
new  employees,  who  do  not  receive  any  profits  until  they 
have  been  in  the  employ  of  the  company  for  thirty  days. 
All  profits  distributed  among  employees  of  any  group  are 
in  proportion  to  the  wages  or  salaries  received  for  the 
six-months’  period. 

“This  dividing  of  employees  into  groups  is  done  on  the 
theory  that  those  who  contribute  the  most  to  the  making 
of  the  profits  are  entitled  to  the  largest  share  in  them. 
The  Group  D  employee,  being  responsible  for  his  own 
work  alone,  does  not  have  it  in  his  power  to  contribute 
as  much  in  increased  efficiency  and  economy  as  the  de¬ 
partment  head  who  is  responsible  for  the  work  of  from 
fifty  to  a  hundred  men. 

“Under  this  plan,  not  only  do  all  employees,  from  the 
general  manager  to  the  messenger  boy,  have  the  incen¬ 
tive  to  do  their  best  in  their  positions  and  thereby  earn 
more  profits,  but  the  employees  in  the  B,  C,  and  D  groups 
have  the  added  incentive  to  advance  into  a  higher  group.” 

And  finally  there  is  that  most  famous  of  all  the  Patter¬ 
son  institutions — the  Hundred  Point  Club.  In  the  early 
days  all  the  salesmen  came  to  Dayton  for  the  annual 


262 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


conventions,  but  as  the  sales  force  grew  larger  this  plan 
grew  less  feasible  and  the  practice  began  of  holding  con¬ 
ventions  out  in  the  districts.  But  it  seemed  advisable 
that  at  least  a  certain  number  of  salesmen  should  meet 
at  Dayton  each  year  so  that  the  sales  force  and  the  factory 
should  keep  in  close  touch.  Mr.  Patterson  hit  upon  the 
plan  of  making  the  trip  to  Dayton  a  reward  for  merit. 
As  has  already  been  explained,  each  sales  district  and 
each  regular  salesman  has  a  yearly  quota  of  points — a 
certain  value  of  cash  registers  that  he  is  expected  to  sell. 
That  gave  a  method  for  working  out  the  reward. 

The  men  who  sold  their  full  quotas  were  designated 
members  of  the  Hundred  Point  Club  and  invited  to  Day- 
ton  for  the  annual  convention.  The  man  who  first  got 
his  quota  in  the  year  was  the  president  of  the  club,  the 
second  man  was  the  vice-president,  and  the  third  was 
the  secretary,  and  the  fourth  was  the  treasurer.  Thus 
evolved  a  unique  organization  of  best  salesmen,  and  each 
year  since  its  inception  the  club  conventions  have  been 
growing  in  importance  until  they  now  are  the  event  of  the 
Dayton  year. 

The  men  are  entertained  at  the  expense  of  the  company, 
and  the  convention  lasts  as  a  rule  one  week.  These  are 
days  of  hard  work,  with  meetings  morning,  noon,  and 
night  on  company  policies  and  the  best  sales  methods. 
Usually  the  sales  point  of  the  year  is  presented  through  a 
playlet  or  tableau  in  which  the  officers  of  the  company 
take  the  leading  parts,  and  such  has  always  been  the 
atmosphere  that  the  men  have  gone  away  resolved  to 
make  new  sales  records — and  usually  made  them. 

During  the  latter  years  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  life  the  con¬ 
ventions  became  more  elaborate,  winding  up  with  an 
excursion  to  New  York  at  the  company’s  expense — all  in 


G.  H.  WARK 

The  European  manager  at  Berlin,  in  charge  of  the  Continental  business  of  the 

National  Cash  Register  Co. 


MORE  OF  MEN  AND  METHODS 


263 


line  with  Mr.  Patterson’s  policy  of  trying  always  to  have 
the  N.  C.  R.  do  more  for  those  who  work  for  it  whole¬ 
heartedly  than  any  other  company  had  ever  thought  of 
doing  for  its  people. 

For  that  was  Mr.  Patterson’s  way  with  men. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 

THE  cash  register  is  the  first  American  machine 
which  can  claim  that  on  it  the  sun  has  never  set. 
Most  noteworthy  American  inventions  have  been 
firmly  established  at  home  before  ever  they  went  over¬ 
seas,  but  the  cash  register  started  out  into  the  world  al¬ 
most  at  once,  and  while  Mr.  Patterson  was  struggling  in 
his  little  shop,  registers  were  being  sold  in  England  and 
Australia.  And  to-day,  although  there  are  not  so  many 
cash  registers  out  in  the  world  as  there  are  petroleum  tins, 
yet  it  is  hard  to  find  a  city  of  a  thousand  people  anywhere 
in  the  world — even  in  the  heart  of  the  Orient — that  has 
not  at  least  one  cash  register,  although  it  may  be  of  an 
ancient  vintage. 

And  with  Mr.  Patterson’s  nature,  a  world-wide  dis¬ 
tribution  was  inevitable.  For  he  looked  on  the  world 
as  a  whole — that  which  was  good  for  an  American  store¬ 
keeper  was  equally  good  for  an  English  or  a  Chinese  store¬ 
keeper.  It  made  no  difference  to  him  that  the  foreign 
storekeeper  might  think  otherwise — he  expected  him  to 
think  otherwise.  And  thus,  having  no  limitation  on  the 
scope  of  his  machine,  he  saw  no  limitation  on  its  market. 
The  reason  for  the  foreign  business  will  be  found  in  Mr. 
Patterson’s  mentality — and  always  he  gave  it  his  per¬ 
sonal  attention.  Not  only  that,  but  he  insisted  that  the 
executives  of  the  company  be  as  familiar  with  Europe 
as  with  the  United  States. 


264 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 


265 


The  first  agent  abroad  was  William  Parnall,  appointed 
for  Bristol,  England,  on  March  19,  1885.  He  sold  only  a 
few  machines.  The  first  really  active  agent  was  J.  W. 
Allinson  and  a  letter  which  he  wrote  on  June  9,  1885,  is 
among  the  historic  documents  of  the  company.  Here  is 
the  letter : 


June  9,  1885. 

To  The  National  Cash  Register  Company 

Dayton,  U.  S.  A. 

Gentlemen: 

When  I  first  saw  one  of  your  Self-adding  Wheel  Cash  Registers 
at  Hannah  &  Hoggs  when  in  Chicago  in  Feb’y  last,  I  was  so  impressed 
with  its  utility  that,  as  you  know  (after  ascertaining  whether  they 
could  be  adapted  to  the  currency  of  this  country),  I  ordered  one, 
which  has  duly  arrived  and  more  than  answers  my  expectations,  the 
only  regret  being  that  I  had  not  seen  and  had  one  here  years  ago. 

For  a  day  or  two  mistakes  occurred,  owing  to  carelessness,  etc., 
but  my  people  and  the  “machine”  as  they  term  it  now,  thoroughly 
understand  each  other  and  there  is  but  one  opinion — that  despite 
the  insular  prejudice  to  “Yankee  Inventions”  they  are  bound  to 
come  into  general  use  in  this  country. 

A  Cash  Register  is  indeed  “invaluable  to  every  business  man.” 

Yours  truly, 

J.  W.  Allinson. 

In  the  early  years  the  foreign  business  was  not  organized 
— agencies  were  just  given  and  the  men  sold  as  and  how 
they  liked.  Some  of  the  agents  were  foreigners  who  had 
never  been  to  Dayton  and  knew  nothing  of  the  company’s 
methods;  others  tried  to  sell  in  the  American  fashion. 
But  in  general  they  had  no  training.  Some  of  their 
experiences  were  quite  amusing,  for  introducing  the  regis¬ 
ter  in  Europe  was  no  child’s  play — the  price  alone  was 
almost  prohibitive.  For  instance,  take  a  note  written 
by  Mr.  Patterson  in  1893  on  the  N.  C.  R.  in  Germany: 


266 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“Mr.  F.  A.  Muller  is  having  no  easy  time  of  it  in 
Germany,  as  his  letters  show.  It  is  uphill  work  selling 
cash  registers  in  that  country  of  conservative  people,  and 
a  less  ambitious  and  enterprising  man  than  Mr.  Muller 
could  not  have  made  any  progress  at  all. 

“That  gentleman  meets  with  some  very  funny  experi¬ 
ences.  For  example,  he  attended  a  meeting  of  druggists 
some  few  weeks  ago  and  gave  them  a  lecture  on  the  cash- 
register  system. 

“‘I  was  introduced  by  the  chairman,’  said  Mr.  Muller, 
‘in  the  following  language:  “This  is  the  gentleman  who  is 
introducing  a  new  patented  American  medicine  that  regu¬ 
lates  the  liver  of  an  unhealthy  business,  builds  up  hope 
for  the  chronic  grumbler  of  dull  trade,  and  protects  the 
heart  of  success  against  the  spasmodic  contraction  of 
errors.  Fifty  thousand  business  men  have  tried  this 
medicine,  and  not  one  has  been  known  to  die  of  business 
failure.” 

“‘I  bowed  my  acknowledgments  and  rattled  off  my 
speech  in  Crane-like  fashion,  seated  myself,  and  waited 
for  the  applause.  Up  jumped  a  man  and  started  in  on  a 
long  harangue  about  the  bad  features  of  the  machine. 
He  denounced  it  in  the  strongest  terms;  said  it  was  an 
insult  to  clerks,  an  indication  that  the  storekeeper  con¬ 
sidered  them  dishonest;  in  fact,  branded  them  as  thieves; 
said  the  price  was  outrageous,  and  wound  up  by  stating 
that  it  was  a  bare-faced  swindle  and  not  worthy  of  support. 

“‘That  was  a  stunner.  I  could  see  the  register  tablets 
tremble  and  the  black  figures  turn  white.  I  arose,  minus 
the  cheers,  and  said  that  while  I  was  pretty  well  battered 
up,  yet  I  respected  the  speaker  for  his  open  frankness  and 
courage  (I  could  have  brained  him  on  the  spot),  as  it 
proved  that  he  was  honest.  I  stated,  also,  that  I  re- 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS  267 

spected  him  for  shouldering  all  responsibility,  and  told 
them  this: 

Gentlemen,  a  thief,  a  murderer,  and  an  insane  man 
are  each  dangerous,  but  the  most  dangerous  of  all  is  a 
conscientious  man  who  honestly  thinks  he  is  doing  right 
when  he  is  actually  doing  wrong/’ 

“  ‘I  told  them  this  gentleman  had  no  proofs  that  what  he 
said  was  correct.  I  dwelt  upon  the  number  of  registers 
in  use,  of  the  great  number  of  testimonials  we  had  re¬ 
ceived;  that  I  did  not  go  to  the  meeting  with  something 
that  had  no  merit,  something  that  was  an  experiment; 
that  I  felt  sure  that  this  body  of  men,  who  had  been 
authorized  by  the  Government  to  mix  extracts  of  life  and 
death,  would  not  judge  the  machine  hastily,  and  then  I 
went  into  the  merits  of  the  registers  as  well  as  I  could. 

“‘I  concluded  my  remarks  by  stating  that  under  no 
circumstances  would  I  accept  an  order  for  a  register  then, 
but  that  the  next  day  I  would  call  upon  a  few  of  them 
and  give  them  a  better  understanding  of  the  machine. 

“‘They  all  turned  to  me.  The  strangest  of  all  was, 
that  the  man  who  was  so  bitter  against  me,  and  who  made 
the  damaging  speech,  was  the  first  to  grasp  my  hand. 
We  wound  up  with  a  banquet  and  I  dropped  business.’” 

Gradually  the  whole  European  business  was  reorgan¬ 
ized  by  Mr.  Patterson,  and  the  details  of  this  organization 
had  been  prepared  by  Mr.  G.  H.  Wark,  the  European 
manager,  with  headquarters  in  Berlin,  who  has  been  the 
chief  man  in  bringing  together  the  Continental  business,  as 
has  Mr.  H.  C.  Banwell  the  English  business — although 
both  men  have  cooperated  on  the  Continent.  The  in¬ 
cidents  of  the  European  business  would  make  a  book  in 
themselves,  but  these  are  the  main  facts.  The  most 


268 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


noteworthy  phase  is  that  the  European  success  dates 
from  the  inauguration  abroad  of  the  methods  used  in 
the  United  States.  The  agents  abroad  are  trained  just 
as  those  at  home,  and  an  N.  C.  R.  demonstration  in  Italian 
is  precisely  along  the  same  lines  as  one  in  English.  Mr. 
Wark’s  memorandum  follows: 

“Prior  to  1895,  the  N.  C.  R.  Company’s  business  in 
Europe  was  not  organized.  Various  general  agencies 
were  appointed  from  Dayton  for  various  countries,  but 
they  did  practically  no  business. 

“Only  in  England,  Germany,  Holland,  and  Italy  were 
substantial  sales  made  in  the  years  1891  to  1895  by  the 
general  agents:  Allinson — England;  Muller — Germany; 
Van  Erk — Holland;  and  De  Giovanni — Italy. 

“In  the  summer  of  1895,  Mr.  Patterson  made  his  second 
trip  to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  more  actively  pushing 
the  European  business. 

“It  was  also  his  object  better  to  overcome  a  possible 
business  depression  in  America  by  increasing  the  com¬ 
pany’s  foreign  business.  In  order  to  do  this,  he  realized 
that  general  agents  would  never  exploit  the  territories 
and  expand  the  business  in  the  large  countries  as  would 
company  organizations,  and  that  his  selling  methods  had 
to  be  introduced.  Thus,  on  this  trip,  Mr.  Patterson  per¬ 
sonally  laid  the  foundation  of  the  N.  C.  R.  business  in 
Europe. 

“Under  his  personal  guidance,  from  1895  to  1914  it  de¬ 
veloped  to  an  enormous  organization,  producing  nearly 
one  third  of  the  N.  C.  R.  world’s  business.  It  comprised 
15  agencies  in  as  many  different  countries,  with  about 
2,500  agents,  employees,  and  workmen — of  these  1,000 
in  Germany.  At  that  time  the  European  N.  C.  R.  organ- 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 


269 


ization  was  probably  the  largest  of  any  American  concern 
manufacturing  and  selling  machinery. 

“The  first  change  was  made  in  England  in  1895  where 
the  General  Agent  Allinson  was  cancelled  and  a  subsidiary 
company  organized  in  London  in  November,  1895,  under 
the  name  of  ‘The  National  Cash  Register  Company,  Ltd/ 
In  1895  Mr.  C.  E.  Hall,  then  manager  of  the  Brooklyn, 
New  York,  agency,  was  asked  to  come  to  Europe  and  act 
as  manager  for  the  London  company.  In  November,  1897, 
he  was  appointed  manager  for  Europe  and  Mr.  G.  H.  Carr 
succeeded  him  as  manager  for  the  London  company. 

“In  October,  1895,  Mr.  Patterson  cabled  to  me — I  was 
then  manager  of  the  Brooklyn  office — to  come  to  Berlin 
and  act  as  manager  for  the  subsidiary  company  to  be 
organized  under  the  name  of  4  The  National  Cash  Register 
Company,  m.  b.  H/  This  company  began  its  work  in 
November,  1895,  and  the  incorporation  was  completed  in 
February,  1896. 

“During  his  stay  in  Europe  in  1895,  Mr.  Patterson 
personally  conducted  agents’  schools  and  conventions.  In 
one  of  the  latter  agents  made  the  remark:  ‘It’s  a  long 
time  between  drinks.’  This  was  used  a  number  of  years 
after  by  Mr.  Patterson  to  illustrate  what  kind  of  agents 
at  that  time  were  representing  the  company. 

“In  1896,  the  registration  of  the  French  subsidiary 
company  with  headquarters  in  Paris  was  completed.  Mr. 
A.  O.  Zwick  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  was  engaged  in  Paris  as 
manager.  He  was  cancelled  after  a  few  months’  service. 

“In  1897  Mr.  Patterson  made  a  famous  trip,  visiting 
fifty  cities  in  sixty  days,  situated  in  fifteen  different 
countries. 

“In  1898,  the  then  manager  for  Europe,  Mr.  C.  E.  Hall, 
was  cancelled. 


270 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“From  the  beginning,  Mr.  Patterson  instituted  in 
Europe  the  company’s  liberal  policies,  which  have  been 
in  force  ever  since,  and  he  then  laid  down  the  principles 
upon  which  the  European  business  should  be  conducted. 
It  was  his  constant  aim  to  have  as  leaders  for  the  various 
organizations  natives  of  the  respective  countries,  and 
eliminate  everything  American  from  the  organizations 
that  could  in  any  way  be  objected  to  by  the  natives. 
Mr.  Patterson  was  thoroughly  international  and  felt  at 
home  in  whichever  country  he  has  happened  to  visit.  He 
respected  and  complied  with  the  customs  of  each  country 
and  always  impressed  upon  the  leaders  of  the  organizations 
that  they  should  adapt  our  business  and  business  methods 
as  much  as  possible  to  local  conditions.  His  agents’ 
schools,  conventions,  and  advertising  campaigns,  which 
he  inaugurated  in  America  many  years  ago,  were  copied 
almost  to  the  letter.  Later  on,  many  of  the  large  indus¬ 
trial  concerns  throughout  Europe  copied  what  became 
known  as  the  ‘N.  C.  R.  methods.’ 

“Mr.  Patterson  was  a  strong  believer  in  giving  author¬ 
ity  and  placing  responsibility  on  the  officers  and  employees 
of  the  company,  and  by  placing  confidence  in  them  he 
made  them  self-relying.  It  was  Mr.  Patterson  who  or¬ 
dered  the  names  of  the  various  subsidiary  companies  in 
the  different  countries  to  be  changed  from  ‘The  National 
Cash  Register  Company’  and  be  translated  into  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  each  country;  hence  the  names  of  the  present 
N.  C.  R.  companies  in  Europe  are  as  follows: 

“Berlin,  Germany — National  Registrier  Kassen  Ges. 
m.  b.  H. 

“London,  England — The  National  Cash  Register  Com¬ 
pany,  Ltd. 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 


271 


66  Paris,  France — La  Nationale  Caisse  Enregistreuse,S.  A. 

“  Vienna,  Austria — National  Registrier  Kassen  Ges. 
m.  b.  H. 

“Brussels,  Belgium — La  Nationale  Caisse  Enregis- 
treuse,  S.  A. 

“Madrid,  Spain — Cajas  Registradoras  ‘National.’ 

“Milan,  Italy — Societa  Anonima  Registratori  di  Cassa 
‘National.’ 

“Prague,  Czecho-Slovakia — National  Registrujici  Pok- 
ladny. 

“At  various  times  attempts  were  made  to  have  Ameri¬ 
can  sales  agents  work  in  Europe,  but  all  without  exception 
soon  returned  to  America,  and  the  majority  of  these  sales 
agents  made  a  failure  in  Europe. 

“In  1896,  the  first  international  convention  of  sales 
agents  was  held  in  Dayton,  which  Mr.  Patterson  invited 
ten  persons  from  various  countries  in  Europe  to  attend. 

“From  1895  to  1898,  the  German  organization  was  the 
organization  that  had  made  the  most  progress  of  the 
Continental  European  organizations,  and  it  was  but  nat¬ 
ural  that  the  smaller  agencies  looked  toward  this  large 
company  organization  for  assistance  in  selling,  repairing, 
advertising,  etc.  This  led  to  my  appointment  as  super¬ 
visor  of  the  various  N.  C.  R.  organizations  in  Continental 
Europe.  In  July,  1909,  the  second  international  conven¬ 
tion  was  held  in  Dayton,  to  which  representatives  from 
nearly  every  country  in  Europe  were  invited. 

“During  his  frequent  visits  to  Europe,  Mr.  Patterson 
saw  that,  after  the  company’s  business  had  advanced  to 
a  certain  point,  it  required  centralization.  He  realized 
already  at  that  time  that  the  Dayton  factory  was  too  far 
away  from  the  European  organizations  to  exercise  proper 


272 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


supervision  over  them  and  make  necessary  decisions  per¬ 
taining  to  the  European  business.  Therefore,  in  1903, 
Mr.  Robert  Patterson,  then  vice-president  of  the  Dayton 
company,  was  appointed  manager  for  Europe,  and  Mr. 
D.  W.  Saxe,  who  succeeded  Mr.  G.  H.  Carr  in  1902,  man¬ 
ager  for  England.  Mr.  Robert  Patterson  held  this  posi¬ 
tion  in  Europe  for  nearly  three  years  and  then  returned 
to  Dayton.  During  this  period  the  European  business 
made  considerable  progress.  In  1903,  the  first  German 
factory  was  started  at  Alte  Jacobstrasse,  Berlin.  After 
Mr.  Robert  Patterson  had  left  Europe,  several  of  the 
officers  of  the  home  company  wanted  to  and  finally  did 
divide  the  European  business  on  the  Continent  into  two 
groups.  The  so-called  Latin  Section  was  created  in 
August,  1906,  comprising  the  countries  Belgium,  France, 
Italy,  Portugal,  and  Spain,  with  headquarters  in  Paris. 
Mr.  Doucharme,  former  sales  agent  in  America,  was  ap¬ 
pointed  manager  for  France,  and  Mr.  E.  C.  Morse  of  the 
Dayton  Foreign  Department  was  made  supervisor  of  the 
Latin  Section. 

“This  organization  lasted  but  one  year  and  was  dis¬ 
solved  after  it  had  turned  out  to  be  an  entire  failure,  and 
the  company  lost  a  considerable  amount  of  money  on  the 
experiment.  Again  the  former  plan  of  organization  was 
adopted  with  myself  as  manager  for  Continental  Europe 
with  headquarters  in  Berlin.  At  that  time  the  company’s 
business  in  Europe  was  managed  by  the  following  persons : 

“G.  H.  Wark,  Manager,  Continental  Europe; 

“H.  C.  Boysen,  Assistant  Manager,  Continental  Europe; 

“A.  Rist,  Sales  Manager,  Berlin,  Germany; 

“Otto  Rosin,  Manager,  Austria-Hungary  and  Balkan 
countries ; 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 


273 


“J.  Vuillaume,  Manager,  Paris,  France; 

“Emilio  Mora,  Manager,  Madrid,  Spain; 

“Enrico  de  Giovanni,  Manager,  Milan,  Italy; 

“J.  H.  Weigel,  Manager,  Zurich,  Switzerland; 

“L.  Faquer,  Manager,  Brussels,  Belgium; 

“Cord  H.  van  Erk,  General  Agent, Amsterdam, Holland; 

“Emilius  Moller,  General  Agent,  Copenhagen,  Den¬ 
mark; 

“N.  E.  Frykholm,  General  Agent,  Stockholm,  Sweden; 

“T.  I.  Hagen  Company,  General  Agent,  Moscow,  Russia; 

“Nikos  S.  Skodras,  General  Agent,  Athens,  Greece; 

“Philipp  Lusgarten,  General  Agent,  Bucharest,  Rou- 
mania; 

“Otto  Scheff  els,  General  Agent, Constantinople,  Turkey; 

“Schischkow  &  Co.,  General  Agent,  Sofia,  Bulgaria; 

“I.  Isailovits,  General  Agent,  Belgrade,  Serbia; 

“D.  W.  Saxe,  Manager  of  the  London  company. 

“In  1908,  Mr.  Patterson  came  to  London  and  remained 
nearly  two  years.  He  conducted  from  there  his  campaign 
of  reducing  the  cost  and  selling  prices  of  the  company  all 
over  the  world,  which  resulted  in  an  increase  in  sales  of 
100  per  cent.  In  1908,  Mr.  D.  W.  Saxe,  manager  of  the 
London  company,  was  cancelled,  and  in  1910,  just  before 
Mr.  Patterson  returned  to  Dayton,  Mr.  H.  C.  Banwell  was 
appointed  manager  for  England. 

“It  was  in  October,  1907,  that  the  new  selling  method 
with  sales  pad  was  started  by  Mr.  Patterson  in  our  Paris 
office.  At  this  time,  the  model  stores  were  also  started 
in  our  offices  in  Paris,  Berlin,  and  London.  This  was 
putting  into  effect  Mr.  Patterson’s  ideas  of  teaching 
through  the  eye.  In  the  beginning  of  1914,  Mr.  Patterson 
again  visited  Europe,  and  cabled  for  Mr.  Frederick  B. 


274 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Patterson  to  come  in  order  to  make  a  trip  of  inspection 
of  agencies.  Mr.  Frederick  Patterson,  together  with  Mr. 
Rosin,  manager  for  Austria-Hungary  and  the  Balkan 
countries,  and  I  made  an  extensive  trip  through  all  of 
the  eastern  European  countries,  including  Turkey  and 
Greece.  After  Mr.  Frederick  Patterson  had  returned 
to  Dayton  in  the  beginning  of  July,  Mr.  John  H.  Patterson 
came  to  Berlin  to  hold  a  convention.  He  was  there  when 
war  was  declared,  and  left  for  America  by  way  of  Brussels- 
London  on  one  of  the  last  trains  that  left  the  country 
during  the  mobilization.  His  last  words  at  the  station 
were : 

“‘Do  the  best  you  can!’ 

4  4  At  the  age  of  seventy-five,  again  Mr.  Patterson  was 
one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first  American  business  man  who 
came  to  Berlin  not  long  after  the  armistice  had  been  signed 
early  in  1919.  He  wanted  to  convince  himself  on  the 
ground  of  the  real  conditions.  In  December,  1919,  at 
Dayton  he  endorsed  the  decision  of  the  company  to 
purchase  a  new  factory  in  Berlin  and  to  manufacture 
several  styles  of  National  Cash  Registers.” 

The  European  business  in  detail  grew  as  follows — from 
another  memorandum  by  Mr.  Wark: 

44  Great  Britain — English  business  began  March  19, 
1885,  with  J.  W.  Allinson  as  sales  agent  at  Liverpool 
and  Wm.  Parnall  as  sales  agent  at  Bristol,  England,  his 
territory  being  limited  to  one  county,  of  which  Bristol  is 
the  seat.  December  8, 1886,  J.  W.  Allinson,  of  Liverpool, 
was  appointed  sales  agent  for  the  British  Isles,  France, 
Belgium,  and  Holland.  On  December  22, 1891 ,  Mr.  Allin- 
son’s  territory  was  limited  to  Great  Britain  alone.  On 
November  8, 1895,  the  National  Cash  Register  Company, 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 


275 


Ltd.,  was  incorporated  with  a  capital  of  five  thousand 
pounds,  with  Mr.  Chas.  E.  Hall  manager  until  1897. 
Then  Mr.  G.  H.  Carr  was  appointed  manager  and  acted 
in  that  capacity  until  1902.  He  was  succeeded  by  Mr. 
D.  W.  Saxe,  formerly  assistant  sales  manager  for  U.  S.  A. 
and  Canada,  who  acted  in  that  capacity  until  1908. 

“In  1908,  the  sales  amounted  to  about  450,  with  3,000 
points.  There  were  at  that  time  145  sales  agents  and 
200  employees  and  mechanics.  In  1894,  the  headquar¬ 
ters  in  London  were  removed  to  225,  Tottenham  Court 
Road,  where  they  are  now.  On  May  4,  1908,  the  capital 
was  increased  to  forty-five  thousand  pounds;  on  Septem¬ 
ber  1,  1908,  it  was  increased  to  fifty  thousand  pounds; 
on  October  1,  1908,  it  was  again  increased,  to  one  hundred 
thousand  pounds.  From  1908  to  1910,  Mr.  John  H. 
Patterson  personally  took  charge  of  the  London  company. 
In  1910,  Mr.  H.  C.  Banwell  was  appointed  manager  for 
the  London  company.  Since  1915,  when  during  the  war 
it  became  necessary  to  restrict  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Berlin  company  to  the  Central  Empires,  Mr.  Banwell 
was  given  the  supervision  of  the  company’s  business  in 
Algiers,  Belgium,  Egypt,  France,  Italy,  Portugal,  Spain, 
and  Switzerland.  London  is  now  headquarters  of  the 
Western  Section.  The  present  number  of  sales  agents 
is  146  and  the  number  of  office  employees  115. 

“Switzerland — The  National  Cash  Register  business 
began  in  that  country  on  November  13,  1885,  with  the 
appointment  of  A.  J.  Maas  as  sales  agent  for  Switzerland. 
No  business  was  done,  the  first  register  in  Switzerland 
being  imported  by  Alexander  Kunz,  Berne,  who  purchased 
it  during  a  trip  in  America,  direct  from  the  factory  at 
Dayton.  Mr.  Kunz  was  appointed  sales  agent  for  Switz¬ 
erland  on  April  16,  1891,  but  no  further  business  was  done 


276 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


by  him.  On  October  7,  1891,  Mr.  Anton  Waltisbuhl  of 
Zurich  was  given  the  agency,  but  was  cancelled  again  on 
April  16,  1892. 

“The  National  Cash  Register  business  in  Switzerland 
really  began  only  in  1900,  when  one  of  the  sales  agents  in 
France,  Mr.  Hausermann,  was  sent  to  Switzerland  from 
Paris  with  headquarters  in  Zurich.  He  operated  under 
the  supervision  of  the  then  manager  for  France,  Mr.  G. 
Peratoner,  the  Swiss  organization  at  that  time  being  a 
branch  of  the  French  company.  Very  little  business  was 
done  until  the  Swiss  organization  in  1903  was  placed  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Berlin  company,  and  Mr.  Bing,  who 
had  received  his  training  as  sales  agent  in  Germany,  was 
given  the  sales  agency  of  Switzerland.  In  1908,  Switzer¬ 
land  was  made  a  branch  of  the  Berlin  company,  and  Mr. 
J.  H.  Weigel  was  appointed  manager  of  the  Swiss  organiza¬ 
tion,  which  was  formed  with  a  capital  of  M  50,000.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  war,  when  the  business  of  the  Berlin  company  was 
placed  under  sequestration  by  the  Government,  the  Swiss 
company  was  made  a  branch  of  ‘The  National  Cash 
Register  Company,  Ltd.,’  London,  England.  In  1917, 
Mr.  Weigel  was  cancelled  and  the  then  bookkeeper, 
Mr.  A.  J.  Stiefel,  was  made  manager,  which  position  he 
still  holds.  Switzerland  belongs  to  the  Western  Section. 

“Spain — The  Spanish  business  was  first  conducted 
through  Mr.  R.  Mestre,  who  was  appointed  sales  agent  on 
June  5,  1886.  His  territory  included  Portugal.  His 
contract  was  cancelled  on  October  3,  1890,  no  business 
having  been  done.  He  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  O.  W. 
Crous,  who  had  his  headquarters  at  Valencia  and  acted 
as  general  agent  for  the  two  countries  until  1906.  On 
December  26,  1906,  the  Spanish  business  was  made  a 
company  organization  with  headquarters  in  Madrid 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 


277 


and  operating  as  a  branch  of  "La  Nationale  Caisse  En- 
registreuse,  S.  A.,’  of  Paris  with  Mr.  Crous  as  manager. 
Mr.  Crous  was  cancelled  in  1907  and  was  succeeded  by 
Mr.  Emilio  Mora,  under  whose  supervision  were  also  the 
Canary  Islands  and  Portugal,  with  Mr.  Madureira  being 
appointed  general  sales  agent  for  the  latter  country. 
During  the  war,  on  October  1,  1917,  the  Spanish  company 
was  made  a  branch  of  ‘The  National  Cash  Register  Com¬ 
pany,  Ltd.,’  of  London,  England. 

“Germany — The  National  Cash  Register  business  in 
Germany  began  September  4,  1885,  when  A.  Kober  was 
appointed  sales  agent.  Practically  no  business  was  done. 
October  16,  1890,  F.  A.  Muller,  an  American,  was  ap¬ 
pointed  sales  agent  to  succeed  Mr.  Kober.  He  took 
two  sample  machines  with  him  from  Dayton  to  Berlin. 
On  May  20,  1891,  Mr.  Muller’s  territory  was  extended 
to  include  Austria-Hungary  and  Russia.  From  1891  to 
1895  about  one  thousand  registers  had  been  sold  in  Ger¬ 
many.  Mr.  Muller’s  contract  as  sales  agent  was  can¬ 
celled  in  November,  1895.  The  business  in  Germany  was 
then  conducted  as  a  company  organization,  the  incorpora¬ 
tion  of  which  was  completed  in  February,  1896,  under  the 
name  of  ‘The  National  Cash  Register  Company,  m.  b.  H.,’ 
with  Mr.  G.  H.  Wark  as  business  manager.  The  capital 
stock  was  M  200,000.  At  this  time  the  Berlin  company’s 
headquarters,  executive  office,  and  salesroom  were  at  the 
corner  of  Friedrich-  and  Kronenstrasse. 

“In  1903,  the  first  European  factory  was  started  at  Alte 
Jakobstrasse,  Berlin,  and  the  Berlin  company  was  granted 
the  exclusive  right  to  manufacture  National  Cash  Regis¬ 
ters  and  to  use  all  patents  in  Europe.  In  1903,  the  Berlin 
company  became  the  headquarters  of  all  N.  C.  R.  organi¬ 
zations  in  Continental  Europe,  and  Mr.  G.  H.  Wark  was 


278 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


manager  for  Continental  Europe.  On  May  4,  1908, 
the  name  of  the  Berlin  company  was  changed  to  ‘  National 
Registrier  Kassen  Ges.  m.  b.  H.’  On  December  19,  1911, 
the  factory  was  moved  into  larger  quarters  to  Hallesches 
Ufer  12/13. 

“In  1914,  the  German  organization  was  made  up  of  one 
thousand  persons,  of  whom  two  hundred  and  sixty  were 
sales  agents  and  the  remainder  employees,  travelling 
mechanics,  and  workmen.  The  monthly  sales  amounted 
to  about  1,200  registers  with  11,000  points.  In  1914, 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Berlin 
company  was  restricted  to  the  Central  Empires.  On 
October  1,  1918,  the  Berlin  company  had  to  give  up  its 
premises  at  Hallesches  Ufer  12/13,  and  moved  into  new 
quarters  at  Kronenstrasse  24  with  the  executive  office, 
while  the  factory  moved  to  10a,  Kopenickerstrasse.  In 
November,  1917,  the  Berlin  company  was  placed  under 
government  control,  and  from  January  14th  to  February, 
1919,  was  put  under  sequestration,  Dr.  Edward  Simon 
being  appointed  sequestrator.  In  the  beginning  of  1919, 
right  after  the  war,  the  German  organization  comprised 
92  sales  agents,  62  travelling  mechanics,  100  employees 
and  workmen.  On  October  26,  1920,  a  new  plant  was 
purchased  at  the  corner  of  Werra-  and  Thiemannstrasse, 
Berlin-Neukollin,  into  which  our  executive  office  moved 
on  January  23,  1922.  On  October  26,  1920,  permission 
was  obtained  from  the  German  Government  for  the  im¬ 
port  of  tools  for  our  Class  1,400  registers;  and  in  February, 
1922,  the  first  Class  1,400  machine  was  delivered.  Mr. 
H.  C.  Boysen,  now  supervisor  of  the  Central  Section,  Mr. 
A.  Rist,  Sales  Manager,  Germany. 

“France — In  1885,  Mr.  A.  S.  Lovendall  was  appointed 
sales  agent,  no  sales  being  made.  From  1886  to  Decern- 


THE  PRINTING  ROOM  OF  THE  N.  C.  R.  CO. 

John  H.  Patterson  early  began  to  do  his  own  printing.  The  N.  C.  R.  plant,  even  many  years  ago,  was  in  advance  of  the  plants  of 

most  publishers,  especially  in  colour  printing  end  in  speed  of  execution 


MR.  PATTERSON’S  HOME  AT  FAR  HILLS 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 


279 


ber  22,  1891,  France  was  added  to  the  British  agency, 
then  in  charge  of  J.  W.  Allinson.  From  1891  to  1896,  the 
French  agency  was  in  charge  of  Mr.  Girchmane,  prac¬ 
tically  no  business  being  done.  In  1896,  a  subsidiary 
company  of  the  home  company  was  organized  in  Paris, 
the  registration  of  which  was  completed  in  the  course  of 
the  same  year,  under  the  name  of  ‘La  Nationale  Caisse 
Enregistreuse,  S.  A.5  The  first  manager  was  A.  O.  Zwick. 
In  the  beginning,  it  operated  directly  with  Dayton,  its 
territory  comprising  the  following  countries :  France, 
Portugal,  Tunis,  Algiers,  and  Egypt. 

“From  1903  to  1906,  the  French  organization  was 
placed  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  G.  H.  Wark,  manager 
for  Continental  Europe.  From  1906  to  1907  it  was  under 
the  supervision  of  Mr.  E.  C.  Morse,  then  supervisor  of  the 
so-called  Latin  Section  of  Europe,  whence  it  was  again 
placed  under  the  supervision  of  the  Berlin  company  until 
the  war  was  declared,  when  France  was  placed  under  the 
supervision  of  Mr.  H.  C.  Banwell.  At  present  it  belongs 
to  the  Western  Section  which  is  supervised  by  Mr.  Ban- 
well.  The  following  were  managers  of  the  Paris  company : 

“A.  O.  Zwick — Three  months,  1896; 

“Louis  Faguer,  from  1896  to  1901 ; 

“G.  Peratoner,  from  1901  to  end  of  1905; 

“A.  Avery,  from  1905  to  1906; 

“E.  F.  Ducharme,  from  1906  to  1907 ; 

“E.  C.  Morse,  supervisor  of  the  so-called  Latin  Section; 

“J.  Vuillaume  from  1907.  (Still  holding  his  position.) 

“Italy — The  National  Cash  Register  business  in  Italy 
began  on  January  7,  1886,  when  A.  Brazanti  &  Bros,  of 
Naples  were  appointed  sales  agents  for  all  of  Italy.  No 
business  was  done.  December  24,  1890,  Enrico  de  Gio¬ 
vanni,  of  Genoa,  succeeded  the  above  firm  as  sales  agent. 


280 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


May  22,  1905,  the  ‘Societa  Anonima  Registratori  di  Cassa 
“National”,’  Milan,  Italy,  was  incorporated,  with  Mr.  de 
Giovanni  as  its  first  manager.  With  the  exception  of  one 
year,  i.e.,  1906-07,  when  Italy  was  under  the  supervision  of 
Mr.  E.  C.  Morse,  supervisor  of  the  so-called  Latin  Section 
in  Europe,  the  Italian  business  was  under  the  supervision 
of  Mr.  G.  H.  Wark,  manager  for  Continental  Europe. 
During  the  war,  however,  it  came  for  a  time  directly  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Dayton  company;  later  it  was  trans¬ 
ferred  to  the  supervision  of  Mr.  H.  C.  Ban  well,  manager 
of  the  London  company,  and  now  belongs  to  the  Western 
Section  of  Europe. 

“Mr.  de  Giovanni  was  cancelled  in  1909.  He  was  suc¬ 
ceeded  by  Mr.  Parodi  as  acting  manager,  who  in  turn  was 
cancelled  in  1910  and  succeeded  by  Mr.  C.  F.  Kremer, 
former  sales  agent  in  Hungary,  who  was  appointed  man¬ 
ager  of  the  Italian  company.  In  May,  1915,  when  Italy 
declared  war  on  the  Central  Empires,  Mr.  Kremer  re¬ 
signed  and  Mr.  Stefano  Moro,  then  office  manager,  was 
made  acting  manager  of  the  company.  Later  on  he  was 
appointed  to  the  position  of  manager. 

“Belgium — G.  Bondroit  was  appointed  sales  agent  for 
Belgium  in  July,  1885,  no  business  being  done.  Decem¬ 
ber  8,  1886,  Belgium  was  added  to  the  agency  of  Great 
Britain,  then  in  charge  of  Mr.  J.  W.  Allinson,  where  it 
remained  until  December  22,  1891.  It  was  then  added 
to  Mr.  Cord  H.  van  Erk’s  territory,  Holland.  In  1893, 
Mr.  Arthur  Stuyck  was  appointed  sales  agent  for  Belgium. 
From  1906  to  1907,  Belgium  was  under  the  supervision 
of  Mr.  G.  H.  Wark,  manager  for  Continental  Europe.  In 
1905,  Mr.  Arthur  Stuyck  was  cancelled  and  a  separate 
branch  of  the  French  company  was  opened  with  Mr.  J. 
Vuillaume  as  manager.  When  Mr.  Vuillaume  in  1907 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 


281 


was  transferred  to  the  position  of  manager  for  France, 
Mr.  Louis  Faguer  was  made  manager  for  Belgium.  In 
1911,  Mr.  Louis  Faguer  was  cancelled  and  Mr.  A.  F.  Buss, 
then  sales  agent  in  Switzerland,  was  appointed  manager 
of  the  Belgian  company.  Also  during  the  war,  as  long  as 
the  German  troops  occupied  Belgium,  this  organization 
remained  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  G.  H.  Wark. 
When  the  war  closed,  Mr.  A.  F.  Buss  resigned,  and  Mr.  J. 
Vuillaume,  then  manager  for  France,  was  given  charge  of 
the  Belgian  branch  with  Mr.  L.  Hermans  as  assistant 
manager.  At  that  time  the  Belgian  business  was  placed 
under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Ban  well,  and  now  belongs  to 
the  Western  Section  of  Europe. 

“Austria — In  1895  the  Austrian  agency  was  given  to 
Glogowsky  &  Son,  general  agents  for  the  Remington  Type¬ 
writer  Company.  In  May,  1891,  the  Austrian  agency 
was  added  to  Mr.  F.  A.  Muller’s  territory,  who  was  the 
sales  agent  for  Germany;  Mr.  A.  Sachs  was  appointed  sub- 
agent  for  Mr.  Muller  in  Austria-Hungary,  which  he 
operated  from  1896  to  1898,  headquarters  in  Vienna.  In 
1898,  Mr.  Sachs  was  cancelled  and  the  business  in 
Austria-Hungary  was  conducted  as  a  company  organiza¬ 
tion  with  headquarters  in  Budapest,  the  final  incorpora¬ 
tion  of  which  took  place  in  August,  1899,  with  Mr.  G. 
Peratoner  as  manager.  The  business  in  Austria  at  this 
time  was  operated  as  a  branch  of  the  Hungarian  company. 
In  January,  1900,  the  main  office  was  moved  to  Vienna, 
Tuchlauben  12,  and  in  January,  1905,  a  new  company  was 
formed  for  the  Austria-Hungarian  Empire  in  Vienna 
under  the  name  of  ‘National  Registrier  Kassen  Ges. 
m.  b.  H.,’  and  the  Hungarian  company  was  liquidated. 
In  1901,  Mr.  Peratoner  was  transferred  to  the  position  as 
manager  for  France,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  W.  Martin. 


282 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Mr.  Martin  was  cancelled  in  November,  1902,  and  Mr. 
H.  C.  Boysen,  then  sales  agent  in  Germany,  was  appointed 
manager  for  Austria-Hungary.  In  June,  1903,  Mr.  Boy- 
sen  was  transferred  to  Berlin  to  the  position  of  assistant 
manager  for  Continental  Europe  and  Mr.  Otto  Rosin, 
then  sales  agent  in  Germany,  was  made  manager  for 
Austria-Hungary. 

4 ‘In  January,  1905,  Mr.  Rosin  was  transferred  to  the 
position  of  sales  manager  for  Germany,  and  Mr.  A.  Rist, 
then  district  manager  in  Germany,  was  appointed  manager 
for  Austria-Hungary.  In  June,  1907,  Mr.  Adolf  Rist 
was  transferred  to  the  position  of  sales  manager  for  all 
Germany,  and  Mr.  Otto  Rosin  was  appointed  manager 
for  Austria-Hungary,  at  the  same  time  having  charge  of 
the  business  in  Roumania,  Serbia,  Greece,  Bulgaria,  and 
Turkey,  with  the  following  persons  appointed  general 
agents : 

“Nikos  S.  Shodras,  for  Greece,  with  headquarters  in 
Athens; 

“Philipp  Lustgarten,  for  Roumania,  with  headquarters 
in  Bucharest; 

“Schischkow  &  Co.,  for  Bulgaria,  with  headquarters  in 
Sofia; 

“Otto  Scheffels,  for  Turkey,  with  headquarters  in  Con¬ 
stantinople; 

“I.  Isailovits,  for  Serbia,  with  headquarters  in  Belgrade. 

“In  1914  the  Austria-Hungarian  company  had  78 
sales  agents,  75  employees,  and  26  travelling  me¬ 
chanics.  Total,  179.  At  present  the  territory  of  the 
Austrian  company  includes  Austria  and  Hungary,  which 
latter  country  is  operated  by  a  general  agent,  Mr.  E. 
Purt,  with  headquarters  in  Budapest.  Vienna  is  head¬ 
quarters  of  Eastern  Section. 


I— AT  THE  TIME  OF  THE  “GREAT  RAIN” 

That  started  on  Saturday,  March  22,  1913,  in  the  Miami  Valley.  “In  a  moment  the  N.  C.  R.  was  a  vast  relief  organization  with  Mr. 
Patterson  at  its  head.  .  .  .  He  took  charge  of  Dayton  and  its  sick  and  its  homeless  and  its  hungry  as  easily  as  though  he  were  hold¬ 

ing  a  convention  and  with  as  complete  surety.” 


“The  emergency  was  too  big  for  the  City  of  Dayton;  it  was  too  big  for  the  State  of  Ohio.  It  was  not  too  big  for  John  H.  Patterson. 
When  the  officers  of  the  Fed  ral  Government  reached  Dayton  they  could  only  say  to  him:  ‘We  can  do  nothing  more  than  you  have 
already  done’.” 


FOREIGN  BUSINESS 


283 


“Czecho-Slovakia — This  has  been  made  a  separate 
organization  and  a  new  subsidiary  company  has  been 
formed  with  Mr.  A.  Puder  as  manager  with  headquarters 
in  Prague.  It  belongs  to  the  Eastern  Section. 

“Russia — In  1896  Mr.  Tulschinsky  was  appointed 
sales  agent  for  southern  Russia,  headquarters  Odessa. 
In  1900,  the  business  in  northern  Russia  was  attended 
to  by  the  Berlin  National  Cash  Register  Company 
through  one  of  its  sales  agents,  Mr.  W.  Martin,  with 
headquarters  in  St.  Petersburg.  In  1900,  both  agents 
were  cancelled  and  the  firm  T.  I.  Hagen  Company  was 
appointed  general  agent  for  all  of  Russia.  In  1914,  the 
Russian  organization  comprised  about  40  sales  agents,  25 
employees,  and  25  mechanics.  Russia  belongs  to  the 
Central  Section. 

“Holland — The  National  Cash  Register  business  in 
Holland  began  on  July  2,  1885,  when  J.  Van  Nelle  was 
appointed  agent.  On  December  8,  1886,  J.  W.  Allinson 
was  given  charge  of  the  Dutch  business.  On  September 
29,  1893,  Cord  H.  van  Erk  was  appointed  agent  for 
Holland.  On  May  8,  1922,  this  contract  was  cancelled 
and  a  new  one  made  in  the  name  of  the  firm  Cord  H.  van 
Erk.  Holland  belongs  to  the  Central  Section. 

“Sweden  and  Finland — Graham  Bros.,  Stockholm, 
Sweden,  were  appointed  agents  for  Norway  and  Sweden, 
August  13,  1886.  Sverdrup  Engelschion  was  appointed 
agent  for  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  January  4, 
1892.  N.  E.  Frykholm  became  agent  for  Sweden,  Nor¬ 
way,  and  Finland  in  1896.  Johan  Sande  was  appointed 
agent  for  the  sale  of  our  product  in  Sweden  and  Finland, 
August  10,  1917.  In  1921  a  company  was  formed  by  Mr. 
Johan  Sande  under  the  name  of  National  Kassa  Register. 
Sweden  belongs  to  the  Central  Section. 


284 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


‘‘Denmark — The  National  Cash  Register  business  in 
Denmark  extends  over  a  period  of  about  thirty-three  years. 
Sverdrup  Engelschion,  the  first  agent  for  our  product, 
was  appointed  January  4,  1892.  No  registers  were  sold, 
however,  until  1895.  In  February,  1896,  Emilius  Moller 
was  appointed  agent  in  Denmark,  and  has  remained  as 
such  since  that  time. 

“Iceland — In  1915,  Messrs.  Johnson  and  Kaaber  were 
appointed  general  agents  for  Iceland;  however,  practically 
no  business  being  done,  they  were  cancelled  in  1922. 
From  this  time  on,  Iceland  was  added  to  Mr.  Moller’s 
territory,  to  which  it  had  already  belonged  prior  to  1915. 

“Norway — The  first  agents  for  the  sale  of  National 
Cash  Registers  in  Norway  were  Graham  Bros.,  of  Stock¬ 
holm,  Sweden,  appointed  August  13,  1886.  Since  then 
the  following  have  been  agents: 

“Sverdrup  Engelschion,  appointed  January  4,  1892. 
N.  E.  Frykholm,  appointed  in  1896. 

“Jens  Aspaas,  appointed  August  10, 1917.  Norway  be¬ 
longs  to  the  Central  Section. 

“Russia,  the  Scandinavian  countries,  and  Holland 
have  been  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  G.  H.  Wark, 
manager  for  Continental  Europe,  from  1898  to  1914. 
During  the  war  they  operated  direct  with  Dayton,  and 
at  present  they  are  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  H.  C. 
Boysen,  supervisor  of  the  Central  Section  of  Europe.” 


CHAPTER  XVII 


PATTERSON  THE  ADVERTISER 

THE  N.  C.  R.  has  had  more  advertising  managers 
than  any  company  of  its  size  on  earth — more  men, 
that  is,  who  held  the  title.  But  actually,  Mr. 
Patterson  himself  was  always  the  advertising  director. 
He  took  advertising  as  his  own  special  job  because  he 
considered  that  the  whole  business  rested  on  advertising 
of  the  right  kind.  Of  course  he  never  found  it.  He 
never  found  anything  that  exactly  suited  him — he  was 
always  searching.  But  in  his  search  he  made  many  dis¬ 
coveries — characteristic  ones.  The  best  of  them  were 
translated  into  words  and  they  are  on  charts  hanging 
in  the  advertising  offices  at  Dayton.  They  represent  his 
principles — his  starting  points.  They  are: 

“It  isn’t  quantity — it’s  quality. 

“Never  depend  upon  the  editor,  copy  reader,  or  proof 
reader  to  catch  a  mistake  in  your  copy.  The  best  and 
only  way  to  get  around  this  is  4  Don’t  Make  Mistakes.  ’ 
“Don’t  be  a  copy-cat.  Be  original.  Use  your  imagi¬ 
nation.  Be  sure  of  your  facts.  Be  accurate. 

“Write  so  all  can  understand. 

“Use  small  words  and  short  sentences. 

‘'Don’t  be  stingy  in  the  use  of  pictures;  87%  of  all  we 
know  is  learned  through  the  eye. 

“Be  careful  in  the  use  of  adjectives.  Just  because  it 
sounds  better  don’t  say  ‘the  bride  was  beautiful  in  a 


285 


286 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


gorgeous  creation  of  organdie’ — if  she  was  not,  and 
everybody  knew  she  was  not. 

“If  you  are  not  sure  of  your  facts  the  libel  courts  will 
find  you  out.” 

And  again: 

“1.  Few  words — short  sentences — big  ideas — small 
words. 

“2.  No  ‘ad’  is  large  enough  for  two  ideas. 

“3.  Illustrations.  (Pictures  are  more  convincing  than 
descriptive  matter.) 

“4.  Tell  WHY  as  well  as  HOW  to  do  it. 

“5.  Strong  headings — avoid  precedent — avoid  repeti¬ 
tion — tell  the  truth.” 

An  absolute  simplicity  of  language  and  directing  the 
appeal  through  the  eye  to  the  thing  advertised  were  his  two 
cardinal  points.  He  did  not  want  fancy  advertisements. 
He  tore  up  many  a  beautiful  layout  just  because  the 
picture  seemed  to  take  away  from  the  cash  register. 
His  favourite  way  of  bringing  this  out  was  to  gaze  in¬ 
tently  at  the  layout  and  then  remark,  without  a  trace  of 
sarcasm  in  his  voice: 

“Ah,  what  a  beautiful  dress  you  have  drawn  there. 
What  kind  is  it?  Where  do  you  buy  them?” 

Or: 

“Well,  well,  I  see  Mr.  Patterson  is  selling  men’s  fur¬ 
nishings  and  clothing  now.  Wonderful!” 

He  searched  the  world  for  advertising  material.  If  he 
were  in  a  foreign  city  for  a  few  days,  he  would  be  sure  to 
seek  the  best  book  store.  Then  he  would  buy  all  the 
handsomest  illustrated  books.  Later,  when  he  returned 
to  Dayton,  he  would  take  the  best  of  these  into  advertis¬ 
ing  meetings  and  ask  the  managers  why  they  could  not  do 
as  well.  He  early  began  to  do  his  own  printing — because 


PATTERSON  THE  ADVERTISER 


287 


he  could  not  have  it  done  as  he  liked  elsewhere.  The 
N.  C.  R.  plant  even  many  years  ago  was  far  in  advance  of 
the  plants  of  most  publishers,  especially  in  the  matter  of 
colour  printing  and  in  speed  of  execution — N.  C .  R.’s 
have  been  rushed  out  as  quickly  as  the  special  editions  of 
newspapers.  One  of  the  requisites  of  an  advertising 
manager  was  that  he  should  show  speed.  Ten  days  before 
a  Hundred  Point  Club  convention  some  years  ago  Mr. 
Patterson  remarked: 

“  We  have  no  catalogue  to  give  to  these  men.  That  will 
never  do.  We  must  have  a  catalogue.  Have  one  pre¬ 
pared.” 

This  was  an  order  to  get  up  a  three-hundred-page  cata¬ 
logue  with  new  illustrations  and  text  in  ten  days — no  make¬ 
shift  production  would  do.  It  had  to  be  as  good  a  book  as 
though  six  months  had  been  allotted  for  its  preparation. 
The  advertising  department  worked  day  and  night;  they 
had  five  artists  going  in  Dayton;  seven  engraving  houses 
worked  on  the  plates ;  and  the  actual  printing  was  divided 
among  nine  establishments.  During  the  ten  days  four 
men  were  constantly  travelling — the  post  and  the  express 
were  too  slow.  The  catalogue  was  finished  on  time,  and 
to  the  satisfaction  of  Mr.  Patterson.  It  cost  twenty- 
seven  dollars  a  copy — and  Mr.  Patterson  raised  the 
salary  of  the  advertising  manager  fifteen  hundred  dollars 
a  year ! 

The  advertising  took  various  forms.  In  the  beginning 
it  was  all  direct  advertising — some  of  which  has  been 
described  in  a  previous  chapter.  At  first  the  sheets 
were  known  as  The  Blackboard,  then  as  The  Hustler , 
and  finally  all  the  publications  were  merged  in  The 
N.  C .  R.  Mr.  E.  D.  Gibbs  tells  interestedly  of  the 
evolution: 


288 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“I  have  before  me  a  copy  of  one  of  the  first  Hustlers 
issued  by  the  company,  also  a  copy  of  one  of  the  latest 
journals.  The  first  bears  date  of  June,  1891;  the  latter  is 
dated  September  2,  1911.  Just  twenty  years’  difference. 
Yet  in  one  part  of  this  latest  issue  appears  a  department 
that  was  a  part  of  the  first  issue  and  which  has  been  fea¬ 
tured  by  the  N.  C.  R.  Company  from  the  very  first — a 
Clerks’  Corner.  This  Clerks’  Corner  is  one  of  the  things 
that  gave  the  original  Hustler  such  great  pulling  power.  In 
1890  there  was  not  much  attention  paid  to  educating  clerks 
in  how  to  wait  on  customers.  But  the  N.  C.  R.  made 
education  its  business.  They  have  kept  it  up  ever  since. 

“In  later  years  the  name  of  this  circular,  or  paper  as  we 
were  proud  to  call  it,  was  changed  to  The  N.  C.  R.  But 
the  plan  always  has  remained  the  same — a  paper  sent  di¬ 
rect  to  prospects,  with  a  return  card  enclosed. 

“It  has  been  sent  out  under  various  names  and  in 
various  forms.  It  has  attained  the  dignity  of  a  popular 
magazine  in  colour.  It  has  reached  an  edition  of  1,500,000 
copies  in  a  single  month.  It  has  gone  to  storekeepers  in  a 
hundred  or  more  different  lines  of  business.  It  has  been 
divided,  at  times,  into  separate  editions  for  groceries, 
meat  markets,  drug  stores,  and  other  lines  of  retail  trade, 
but  always  back  of  every  issue,  no  matter  what  its  form  or 
physical  make-up,  was  the  old  idea  of  The  Hustlers  and 
the  return  card.  And  no  matter  in  what  form  this 
journal  has  been  issued,  always  have  those  cards  borne 
out  their  name  of  return  cards,  for  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  them  have  found  their  way  back  to  the  factory  signed 
with  the  names  of  prospects  who,  by  the  skilful  manipula¬ 
tion  of  trained  salesmen,  were  later  on  turned  into  users. 
And  to-day,  at  the  big  factory  of  the  N.  C.  R.,  where  the 
original  Hustler  itself  is  almost  forgotten,  the  mailing 


PATTERSON  THE  ADVERTISER 


289 


list  is  called  The  Hustler  list,  a  name  that  must  sound 
strange  to  the  new  men  entering  the  selling  field  but  which 
to  the  older  employees,  like  myself,  means  a  great  deal. 

“  Nearly  every  piece  of  printed  matter  that  the  National 
Cash  Register  Company  issued  contains  a  return  card. 
This  applies  to  booklets  as  well  as  circulars  and  journals. 
The  booklets  have  return  cards  pasted  or  stitched  in  them 
so  that  they  will  not  fall  out.  These  return  cards  usually 
say:  T  am  interested  in  learning  more  about  a  cash  register 
suitable  for  this  business.  Please  send  further  particu¬ 
lars.  It  is  understood  that  I  am  under  no  obligation  to 
purchase.’ 

“  Now,  what  a  company  wants  and  always  has  wanted  is 
to  get  a  man  to  write  back.  That’s  what  we  all  expect 
when  we  inclose  return  cards.  To  make  it  easy  for  a  man 
to  do  this  they  have  tried  many  plans. 

4 ‘Then  they  had  a  ‘Hints  to  Storekeepers’  Column,' 
giving  practical  ideas  on  how  to  operate  a  store.  An¬ 
other  feature  was  the  ‘Window  Display  Department,’ 
also  very  valuable  and  greatly  appreciated.  Why,  we 
used  to  get  about  as  many  letters  thanking  us  for  the  use¬ 
ful  hints  in  those  departments  as  we  did  about  cash  reg¬ 
isters.  The  president’s  idea  of  the  Clerks’  Corner  was  to 
train  the  clerks  in  methods  of  order,  to  show  them  how  to 
advance,  to  teach  them  business  system,  then  you  see  when 
the  clerks  went  into  business  for  themselves  they  saw  the 
necessity  for  using  cash  registers,  because  by  that  time 
they  had  acquired  systematic  ideas  of  operating  a  store, 
and  this  information  came  from  the  departments  in  The 
Hustler.  It  seemed  like  a  little  thing  to  do,  but  the 
publication  of  those  articles,  month  after  month,  year 
after  year,  did  as  much  to  help  the  N.  C.  R.  business  as  the 
best  and  strongest  advertisements  they  ever  published.” 


290 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


That  which  Mr.  Patterson  considered  the  best  ad¬ 
vertisement  ever  turned  out  by  the  company  was  entitled : 
“Business Is  Booming,”  and  was  published  in  1915.  Why 
he  considered  it  the  best  can  best  be  learned  from  a  talk 
that  he  once  gave  on  his  principles  of  advertising: 

“The  trouble  with  most  advertising  is  that  it  isn’t 
direct  enough.  It  is  a  curious  thing  that  many  of  us,  when 
we  write,  become  unnatural  in  our  method  and  our  ex¬ 
pressions.  We  would  not  talk  to  a  man  that  way  if  we 
had  him  seated  in  front  of  us.  Then  we  would  act 
naturally  and  tell  him  our  story  in  a  plain,  simple,  direct 
way,  but  the  moment  we  try  to  put  these  same  thoughts  on 
paper,  our  expression  becomes  stilted.  We  are  unnatural. 
We  get  away  from  the  simple,  direct  style.  This  makes 
our  advertising  that  much  less  effective.  Some  writers 
seem  to  think  it  necessary  to  have  a  preamble  or  an  in¬ 
troduction  to  the  main  facts  about  their  goods,  instead  of 
plunging  right  in  and  telling  the  things  that  they  should 
tell  about  them.  They  confuse  the  reader,  throw  him  off 
the  track,  and  he  loses  interest  before  he  gets  one  quarter 
through  the  advertisement. 

“Another  great  mistake  is  in  saying  too  much.  Every¬ 
body  does  not  care  for  a  course  dinner. 

“An  advertisement  put  in  a  newspaper  or  magazine 
goes  before  hundreds  of  thousands  of  prospective  pur¬ 
chasers.  Every  word,  therefore,  should  be  carefully 
studied,  the  type  display  simple  and  easy  to  read,  the 
sentences  short,  the  words  short  and  such  that  any  one  can 
understand  them.  When  you  talk  to  a  hundred  thousand 
or  more  people  through  the  use  of  printed  matter,  you 
should  make  your  advertisement  just  as  effective  as  you 
would  your  talk  if  you  were  to  address  these  same  people 
in  a  large  hall. 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON  AND  HIS  FAMILY  AT  FAR  HILLS  IN  1920 
On  the  left  are  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Noble  B.  Judah  (formerly  Dorothy  Forster  Patterson);  Mr.  Patterson  is  the  central  figure;  and  on  the 

right,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frederick  B.  Patterson 


THE  WOMEN  S  CENTURY  CLUB  IN  SESSION  AT  THE  SCHOOLHOUSE 


PATTERSON  THE  ADVERTISER 


291 


“Use  plenty  of  pictures.  If  you  can  put  a  thought 
into  picture  form  instead  of  type,  do  so.  If  it  is  a  good, 
simple  picture  with  the  idea  clearly  brought  out,  all  of 
your  readers,  no  matter  what  their  age  or  nationality,  will 
grasp  it. 

“It  is  difficult  to  give  any  set  rules  about  the  use  of 
illustrations.  Simplicity  is  important  the  same  as  it  is  in 
type  matter.  Useless  curves  or  ornaments  or  anything  of 
that  nature  minimize  the  effect  of  the  illustration. 

“Try  to  get  illustrations  that  are  unusual.  People  like 
the  unusual.  They  are  attracted  by  something  different, 
something  out  of  the  ordinary.” 

Exactly  the  same  careful  application  of  principles  went 
into  window  displays: 

“We  determined  that  in  order  to  get  attention  you 
must  first  excite  interest.  So  we  designed  a  series  of 
motion  displays.  These  brought  the  people  up  to  the 
window.  The  next  process  was  to  sustain  this  interest 
and  advertise  the  company’s  product.  No  use  bringing  a 
man  up  to  the  window  to  have  him  interested  solely  in  a 
movable  clown.  He  must  be  made  to  associate  the  dis¬ 
play  with  the  goods  on  sale.  So  the  company  saw  to  it 
that  the  stage  setting  was  an  attractive  one  and  the  goods 
properly  advertised. 

“All  fancy  backgrounds  of  figured  material,  ornamented 
work,  decorative  mirrors,  etc.,  were  discarded  in  favour  of 
a  plain  material  preferably  of  a  dark  tone.  We  got  that 
idea  from  Tiffany — from  the  way  they  displayed  unset 
diamonds.  You  know  how  jewellers  show  these  beauties. 
They  get  you  in  a  room  covered  with  dark  cloth  and  spill 
out  the  stones  on  a  table  with  a  black-cloth  top.  When 
the  strong  flood  of  daylight  streams  in,  those  diamonds 
become  veritable  balls  of  fire.  You  never  catch  a  jeweller 


292 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


who  knows  his  business  showing  unset  diamonds  on  a 
fancy-covered  table  or  in  a  room  covered  with  multi¬ 
coloured  wallpaper. 

“Plain  goods,  then,  were  the  rule  in  all  window  dis¬ 
plays  made.  And  whatever  colour  was  used  as  a  back¬ 
ground  was  continued  around  the  sides  and  over  the  floor 
of  the  window. 

“The  goods  displayed  were  always  limited  to  two  or 
three  machines — never  more  than  that.  These,  with  one 
or  two  plainly  printed  cards,  completed  the  exhibit. 
The  chief  criticism  that  we  used  to  make  against  window 
displays  in  other  lines  of  business  was  the  faulty  system 
of  lighting.  It  was  formerly  the  rule — and  most  un¬ 
fortunately  is  to-day  in  many  places — to  stick  a  lot  of 
electric  lights  around  a  window  so  that  the  incandescent 
bulbs  were  exposed.  This  made  a  blinding  glare  of  light, 
focussing  attention  on  the  lamps  instead  of  on  the  goods. 

“We  arranged  them  so  that  the  display  was  flooded  with 
a  brilliant  illumination — the  source  of  which  was  hidden 
from  the  eye.  To  show  you  the  trouble  we  went  to  to  get 
this  right,  note  that  the  president,  general  manager,  sales 
manager,  district  manager,  and  local  manager  stood  out¬ 
side  of  the  New  York  office  one  evening  studying  various 
effects  of  decoration  and  lighting,  and  that  when  we  finally 
quit  it  was  12:30.  But  we  surely  did  do  great  work  that 
night  because  we  found  out  how  to  make  a  show  window 
pay. 

“Hide  the  light  and  show  the  goods.  Get  something 
moving  to  attract  attention.  Have  everything  very  plain 
and  simple.  Have  plenty  of  open  spaces.  Mass  your  dis¬ 
play  as  flowers  or  shrubbery  must  be  massed  in  landscape 
gardens.  Put  a  few  neat,  simple  show  cards  on  the  floor  of 
the  show  window.  Get  the  name  of  your  company  below 


PATTERSON  THE  ADVERTISER 


293 


the  level  of  the  eyes  of  the  passers-by.  This  last  was  a 
big  point  we  found  out  that  night.  We  put  the  sign  in 
one  place  and  the  officers  would  walk  by  and  observe  the 
effect;  then  they  changed  it  around  and  they  walked  by 
again.  Then  we  found  the  right  location  for  the  sign  and 
that  was  adopted  for  all  offices. 

“The  device  which  pulled  best  was  a  life-sized  figure  of 
a  clown.  He  was  shown  seated  on  a  chair,  face  to  the 
audience.  In  one  hand  he  held  a  wand  and  directly 
above  this  wand  and  two  feet  from  it,  entirely  unsupported 
by  wires  or  anything  of  the  kind,  floated  a  celluloid  ball. 
It  kept  one  position  but  constantly  revolved,  spinning 
around  as  rapidly  as  a  top,  yet  never  dropping  down  nor 
raising  itself  higher.  The  mechanism  of  the  clown  was 
such  that  he  nodded  his  head  and  shrugged  his  shoulders. 
These  actions,  together  with  the  quizzical  grin  on  his 
painted  face,  gave  him  an  extremely  comical  appearance. 
To  add  to  the  mystery  of  the  action  of  the  celluloid  ball, 
the  clown  was  made  to  move  his  extended  arm  slowly  from 
side  to  side  and,  strange  to  say,  the  celluloid  ball,  still 
dizzily  whirling,  moved  with  the  wand,  still  keeping  the 
same  distance  above  it. 

“  Crowds  gathered  around  the  window  at  alLhours  of  the 
day  and  evening.  The  people  never  seemed  to  grow  tired 
of  the  display.  It  fascinated  them  by  its  oddity  and  kept 
their  attention  because  it  kept  them  guessing.  And  soon 
it  became  noised  about  that  the  N.  C.  R.  had  a  mysterious 
and  unsolvable  puzzle  of  a  window  display.  As  a  conse¬ 
quence  the  interest  never  lagged. 

“The  week  following  another  and  equally  puzzling  dis¬ 
play  was  put  on  view.  A  board  covered  with  green 
billiard  cloth  was  arranged  on  a  sharp  incline  and  six 
celluloid  balls  made  desperate  efforts  to  roll  up  the  board. 


294 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Five  of  them  never  succeeded  in  reaching  the  top,  but  the 
sixth,  with  the  name  National  Cash  Register  painted  on  it, 
rolled  easily  and  silently  clear  to  the  top,  then  back  it 
came  down  a  trough  to  its  position  at  the  foot  of  the  board 
and  up  again  it  climbed. 

“‘What  made  those  balls  roll  up  hill?’  ‘How  could  a 
celluloid  ball  roll  up  a  piece  of  cloth  at  a  very  sharp  angle?’ 
‘What  did  it?’  ‘Where  was  the  machinery?  and  if  the 
machinery  was  there  how  did  it  do  the  trick?’  These  and 
other  questions  were  asked  by  the  greatly  puzzled  audi¬ 
ences. 

“The  third  week  the  window  shades  came  up  and  a  cir¬ 
cular  platform  covered  with  green  cloth  came  into  view. 
On  it  was  a  miniature  racetrack.  Again  the  celluloid 
balls,  but  instead  of  climbing  up  a  hill,  this  time  they  rolled 
around  the  racetrack.  But  strange  things  happened  to 
them.  Sometimes  a  ball  would  roll  around  the  entire 
track  only  to  come  to  a  sudden  stop.  Another  ball  would 
catch  up  to  it  and  then  the  two  would  join  arms,  as  it  were, 
and  go  waltzing  around  the  track  like  the  merriest  dancers 
on  a  ballroom  floor. 

“  ‘How  do  they  do  it?  Where  is  the  force  that  controls 
them?’  Again  came  the  suggestion  of  electricity  or 
magnetism,  but  it  was  manifestly  impossible  for  those 
forces  to  control  the  balls,  as  they  were  not  dragged 
around,  but  they  rolled  around  as  a  hoop  would  roll  along 
the  street. 

“Following  this  came  another  display  and  still  another. 
Mystery  grew  on  mystery.  Each  display  seemed  to  be 
more  puzzling  than  the  previous  one.  In  one  the  problem 
of  endless  motion  seemed  to  be  solved.  In  others  magi¬ 
cians — waxwork,  of  course — did  strange  tricks.  A  mouse 
ran  up  a  post,  climbed  into  a  money  drawer,  grabbed  a 


PATTERSON  THE  ADVERTISER 


295 


dollar  bill,  and  ran  down  a  hole  with  it.  And  so  it  went 
on — always  something  in  motion  to  attract  your  atten¬ 
tion  and  make  you  puzzle  your  brains. 

“That’s  the  way  the  N.  C.  R.  made  you  notice  their 
salesrooms.  Like  everything  else  that  seems  very  myste¬ 
rious  and  impossible  of  solution,  these  puzzling  displays 
were  not  at  all  puzzling  when  the  method  of  operat¬ 
ing  them  was  disclosed.  Not  that  they  ever  were  ex¬ 
plained  to  any  one,  for  the  employees  were  told  to  say, 
‘Really,  I  don’t  know  how  they  do  operate’  to  any  in¬ 
quisitive  callers.  This  statement  was  not  an  untruth,  for 
most  of  the  displays  were  about  as  puzzling  to  the  men  on 
the  inside  as  they  were  to  the  crowds  on  the  outside. 

“One  display — the  remarkable  clown — will  have  the 
secret  laid  bare  for  the  first  time.  The  celluloid  ball  was 
held  in  the  air  by  a  thin  but  very  powerful  stream  of 
compressed  air  which  came  out  of  a  pinhole  in  the  clown’s 
wand.  A  metal  tube  ran  from  the  wand  down  the  clown’s 
body  and  through  the  floor  to  an  air  pump  in  the  base¬ 
ment  of  the  store.  This  jet  of  air  acted  on  the  same 
principle  as  a  stream  of  water  which,  as  ’most  everybody 
knows,  will  suspend  a  ball  high  in  the  air  and  cause  it  to 
revolve.  Why  a  jet  of  water  or  air  causes  a  ball  to  re¬ 
volve  scientists  do  not  seem  to  know,  but  it  does  do  so, 
and  so  there  you  have  the  secret  of  the  N.  C.  R.  clown  dis¬ 
play.” 

Walkingdown  Broadway  one  night,  Mr.  Patterson  passed 
a  shoe-store  window  framed  in  hundreds  of  electric-light 
bulbs.  Mr.  Patterson  entered: 

“I’d  like  to  have  ten  thousand  globes,”  he  remarked. 

“Ten  thousand  globes?”  gasped  the  astonished  clerk. 
“Why,  this  is  a  shoe  store.” 

“Well,  well,  so  it  is,”  answered  Mr.  Patterson.  “I 


296  JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

thought  you  were  selling  electric  lights  and  I  just  needed 
some.” 

Letter  writing  came  in  its  turn,  and  here  again  the  best 
account  of  what  happened  is  given  by  Mr.  Gibbs : 

“Someone,  somewhere  in  this  country,  once  received  a 
reply  to  a  letter  he  had  sent  to  the  National  Cash  Register 
Company,  at  Dayton,  and  not  liking  the  tone  in  which  it 
was  written,  forwarded  it  to  the  president  of  the  company 
together  with  a  curt  note  of  his  own.  The  president  read 
the  letter,  wrote  the  man  another  kind  of  missive  which 
squared  things  with  him,  then  sent  for  all  the  factory 
letter  books  in  which  letters  were  copied,  and  read  over 
many  hundreds  of  the  communications  signed  by  the 
heads  of  departments. 

“The  longer  he  read,  the  more  interested  he  became. 
Then  he  called  a  meeting  of  the  heads  of  all  departments 
of  the  recording  forces  and  addressed  them : 

“‘What  we  need  at  the  present  moment  is  a  school  of 
instruction  in  letter-writing,  following  along  the  lines  of 
the  school  of  instruction  in  selling.  Many  of  the  letters 
that  you  men  compose  and  send  out  would  be  a  disgrace  to 
a  child  in  grammar  school.  What  most  of  you  need  is  a 
training  in  business  correspondence.  You  need  to  be 
taught  how  to  say  a  thing  briefly,  politely,  and  under- 
standingly.  Your  sentences  are  too  long.  Your  ex¬ 
pressions  are  ambiguous.  Your  words  have  too  many 
syllables.  You  are  not  simple  or  direct  enough  in  your 
statements.  Our  company  is  judged  by  these  letters 
of  yours  which  you  send  to  prospective  purchasers  or  our 
users.  Very  few  men  or  women  know  how  to  write  a  good 
letter.  They  do  not  write  as  they  would  talk,  but  use 
stiff,  unnatural  phrases,  long  words,  and  involved  sen¬ 
tences.  What  we  need  is  a  school  in  which  some  coinpe- 


PATTERSON  THE  ADVERTISER 


297 


tent  instructor  can  teach  us  how  to  say  what  we  ought  to 
say  in  a  way  that  will  satisfy  the  recipient  of  the  letter  and 
make  him  a  friend  of  the  company.’ 

“Mr.  Patterson  then  read  many  of  the  letters  to  show 
the  men  that  his  criticisms  were  just  and  reasonable,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  meeting  the  general  manager  received 
instructions  to  engage  the  services  of  a  good  school 
teacher.  A  young  man  who  had  taught  school  in  Massa¬ 
chusetts  was  selected  to  do  this  work.  His  name  was 
W.  C.  Holman,  who  in  later  years  made  a  name  for  himself 
as  a  writer  on  various  topics  connected  with  advertising 
and  salesmanship.  If  there  was  any  one  thing  that 
Holman  could  do  and  do  well,  that  was  to  write.  He  had 
great  ability  in  that  direction,  and,  best  of  all,  was  able  to 
teach  others  how  to  acquire  the  knack  of  writing  business 
English.  He  had  an  attractive  personality  which  enabled 
him  to  win  the  sympathy  of  his  audience  and  was  possessed 
of  a  good  clear  voice. 

“The  first  thing  that  was  done  with  Mr.  Holman  was  to 
turn  him  loose  in  the  filing  department,  where  copies  of 
letters  were  kept.  He  was  provided  with  a  stenographer, 
and  they  made  copious  extracts  from  the  letter  books. 
In  the  review  of  these  letters  which  followed,  no  names  or 
initials  were  used,  so  that  no  one  but  the  writer  of  a  letter 
could  determine  who  was  responsible  for  it. 

“The  ordinary  way  of  bringing  a  matter  of  this  kind 
to  the  attention  of  a  large  number  of  persons  would  be 
for  the  chairman  to  read  the  letter  aloud  and  then  com¬ 
ment  upon  it.  But  the  National  Cash  Register  Company 
never  did  do  the  usual.  Each  letter  criticised,  together 
with  a  copy  of  the  letter  as  it  should  have  been  written, 
was  photographed  on  a  lantern  slide  and  shown  on  a 
screen.  In  this  way  all  could  see  the  letter  instead  of 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


298 

hearing  it  read,  and,  best  of  all — and  no  pun  is  intended — 
the  mistakes  were  magnified.  The  very  enlargement  of 
the  letter  served  to  emphasize  the  errors.  Some  of  the 
mistakes  made  were  so  ludicrous  that  they  created  roars 
of  laughter.  I  made  a  copy  of  one  letter  that  made  a 
pronounced  hit: 

“‘  Dear  Sir — 

‘The  head  of  this  department  is  away  on  his  vacation 
so  your  letter  cannot  be  answered  but  I  will  reply  about 
your  register.  If  it  does  not  work  by  pressing  the  key 
down  it  may  be  stuck  so  please  push  hard  with  all  your 
might  and  if  it  is  stuck  it  will  be  all  right  sometimes  they 
get  sticky  so  if  you  put  on  some  oil  your  key  will  push 
down.’ 

« 

“That  particular  letter  was  sent  to  a  man  who  had  com¬ 
plained  that  he  could  not  operate  his  cash  register  after 
it  had  fallen  from  a  counter  in  a  grocery  store,  landing 
near  a  barrel  of  molasses ! 

“The  sessions  of  this  school  of  letter  writing  were  held 
in  a  small  building  near  the  factory  and  were  attended  by 
about  one  hundred  men  and  women.  The  instructor  told 
them  that  there  were  three  things  that  a  man  must  know 
in  order  to  send  out  a  good  business  letter. 

“First,  what  to  say.  He  must  have  good  thoughts. 
“Second,  how  to  say  it.  He  must  know  the  forms  of 
good  expression. 

“Third,  how  to  put  it  on  paper.  He  must  know  the 
forms  of  good  mechanical  execution. 

“They  were  taught  that  a  man  cannot  write  clearly 
what  he  has  not  thought  out  clearly,  that  he  cannot  make 
luminous  to  other  minds  what  is  dark  in  his  own  mind. 


PATTERSON  THE  ADVERTISER 


299 


Before  a  man  begins  to  write  it  is  not  necessary  that  he 
should  know  the  succession  of  words  he  is  to  choose,  but 
it  is  necessary  that  he  should  know  the  succession  of 
thoughts  that  he  is  to  express.  The  instruction  on  letter 
writing  was  not  confined  to  those  who  dictated  the  letters; 
it  included  all  men  and  women  stenographers  of  the 
factory  Particular  stress  was  laid  upon  the  appearance 
of  a  letter.  It  was  shown  by  photographic  examples 
that  this  had  much  to  do  with  its  effectiveness.  Much 
attention  was  paid  to  the  matter  of  neatness. 

44  One  important  thing  that  was  impressed  upon  them 
was  that  a  man  should  never  write  a  letter  or  answer  a 
letter  when  labouring  under  excitement. 

“Then  came  instruction  on  addressing  envelopes,  seal¬ 
ing  envelopes,  and  affixing  the  stamps.  The  boys  in  the 
mailing  department  were  shown  by  lantern  slides  how 
slovenly  an  envelope  looked  with  the  stamp  in  the  wrong 
place,  or  twisted,  or  upside  down.  Mr.  Holman  showed 
hundreds  of  examples  of  grammatical  errors  made  in 
letters  and  gave  the  men  and  women  some  simple  rules  to 
observe.  These  were  printed  in  pamphlet  form  and  a 
copy  given  to  every  employee  in  the  factory  and  company 
offices.  Like  the  other  unusual  things  done  by  the  com¬ 
pany,  this  school  of  training  on  business  correspondence 
did  not  meet  with  a  hearty  reception  when  it  first  started. 
But  just  as  soon  as  the  employees  saw  the  object  of  this 
school  and  what  it  meant  to  them  in  their  departments, 
they  entered  into  the  work  with  a  vim,  and  were  quick  to 
learn  and  profit  by  what  was  told  them.” 

Mr.  Patterson  on  Advertising  would  not  be  complete 
without  reprinting  his  two  favourite 44  pyramids”  on  adver¬ 
tising,  the  first  entitled  44  Advertising  Is  Teaching”  and 
the  second  44  Advertising  Helps  Everybody.” 


300 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Advertising  Is  Teaching 

People  to  whom  it  goes : 

People  who  are  intelligent. 

People  who  are  ignorant. 

People  who  have  little  time  to  read. 

People  who  work  hard  and  are  too  tired  to  read. 

People  who  have  time  to  read. 

Write  so  all  can  understand. 

The  poor  man’s  vote  counts  as  much  as  the  rich  man’s. 

The  poor  man’s  dollar  is  worth  as  much. 

Write  in  the  vernacular  of  the  people  you  want  to  interest. 
Write  so  the  ignorant  can  understand. 

This  makes  it  easy  for  the  intelligent. 

How  to  do  this : 

Use  small  words,  big  ideas,  and  short  sentences. 

Make  every  sentence  convey  but  one  idea. 

Use  big  type  and  many  pictures. 

Abbreviate  as  much  as  possible. 

Never  mention  a  competitor’s  name. 

The  value  of  pictures: 

A  picture  has  no  nationality. 

It  speaks  to  each  in  his  own  tongue,  no  matter  what  his  language 
may  be. 

It  talks  in  a  way  that  either  child  or  adult  can  understand. 

It  speaks  all  languages  and  talks  to  all  ages. 

Nature  alone  carries  so  universal  a  message. 

Five  ways  of  advertising: 

By  showing  the  thing  itself. 

By  moving  pictures  of  the  thing  in  operation. 

By  still  pictures  of  the  thing. 

By  printed  words  of  description. 

By  spoken  words  of  description. 

Advertising  Helps  Everybody 
The  consumer: 

Advertising  tells  the  truth  about  merchandise  important  to 
health,  comfort,  and  economic  living. 

It  gives  an  opportunity  to  compare  prices. 

It  increases  sales. 


PATTERSON  THE  ADVERTISER 


301 


This  means  greater  production  and  lower  prices. 

Advertised  goods  are  guaranteed  by  manufacturer,  magazine, 
and  merchant. 

The  consumer  is  protected  against  misrepresentation  and  substi¬ 
tution. 

The  factory  employee : 

Advertising  enlarges  the  market  and  builds  a  permanent  de¬ 
mand. 

This  means  steady  work.  There  are  no  slack  seasons.  Pro¬ 
duction  is  evenly  distributed. 

As  the  factory  grows,  opportunities  for  workers  are  greater. 

The  greater  the  factory,  the  better  the  working  conditions. 

Profits  and  wages  increase  as  production  increases. 

The  store  clerk: 

Advertising  teaches  the  clerk  all  about  the  merchandise  he  sells. 

Sales  are  easier  when  both  customer  and  salesman  know  the 
merchandise. 

Sales  records  are  increased  because  of  increased  demand. 

Advertised  goods  are  half  sold  before  they  are  shown. 

There  are  fewer  complaints.  Advertised  goods  are  as  repre¬ 
sented. 

The  merchant: 

Advertising  divides  the  selling  cost  between  merchant  and  manu¬ 
facturer. 

Goods  move  faster. 

The  turnover  is  multiplied.  Stock  is  kept  new  and  profits  in¬ 
crease. 

Stock  is  put  on  a  standardized,  evenly  moving  basis. 

Reliable  goods  give  the  house  a  reputation  worth  money. 

There  is  no  need  to  stock  unknown  and  speculative  goods. 

The  manufacturer: 

Advertising  stabilizes  production  and  makes  big  industries 
possible. 

It  guarantees  the  growth  of  any  business. 

Advertising  gives  the  manufacturer  the  security  of  owning  his 
market. 

It  increases  sales  and  increases  profits. 

It  is  the  driving  power  behind  the  sales  organization. 

It  creates  the  demand. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 

ON  SUNDAY,  March  25,  1913,  the  “Great  Rain” 
started  in  the  Miami  Valley.  And  then  John  H. 
Patterson  rose  to  the  greatest  moment  of  his  life. 
Everything  that  he  had  or  knew  went  into  those  flood  days 
— all  his  organizing  genius,  all  his  resource,  all  his  foresight, 
all  his  grasp  of  detail,  and  all  his  money  rose  to  instant 
summons.  In  a  moment  the  N.  C.  R.  was  a  vast  relief 
organization  with  Mr.  Patterson  at  its  head.  The  heights 
the  man  could  rise  to  appeared.  He  took  charge  of  Day- 
ton  and  its  sick  and  its  homeless  and  its  hungry  as  easily  as 
though  he  were  holding  a  convention  and  with  as  com¬ 
plete  a  surety.  The  emergency  was  too  big  for  the  city  of 
Dayton;  it  was  too  big  for  the  state  of  Ohio.  It  was  not 
too  big  for  John  H.  Patterson.  When  the  officers  of  the 
Federal  Government  reached  Dayton,  they  could  only  say 
to  him: 

“We  can  do  nothing  more  than  you  have  already  done.” 
The  city  of  Dayton  is  built  on  low  ground  between  two 
lines  of  hills.  The  Miami  River,  ordinarily  a  quiet  sort 
of  stream,  is  joined  near  the  city  by  the  Stillwater  and  the 
Mad  rivers;  then  the  Miami  takes  a  loop  through  the 
town.  In  times  past,  when  the  water  grew  high,  it  usually 
abandoned  the  loop  and  took  a  direct  course  through  what 
is  now  the  centre  of  the  city.  To  stop  these  incursions, 
dikes  were  built — dikes  that  were  supposed  to  stand  any 
possible  rising  of  the  waters.  Mr.  Patterson  never  had 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 


303 


any  faith  in  the  dikes — that  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  the 
N.  C.  It.  factories  were  built  on  the  hill  far  above  the 
highest  flood  point. 

All  day  Monday  it  rained.  All  Monday  night  it 
rained.  On  Tuesday  morning,  when  Mr.  Patterson 
reached  the  factory  at  half -past  six,  he  was  worried.  He 
went  to  the  roof  of  the  office  building  and  looked  over  the 
country.  Then  he  called  for  his  motor  car  and  with  Mr. 
Barringer — the  present  general  manager  and  vice- 
president,  who  was  then  his  secretary — he  rode  about 
Dayton  and  up  and  down  the  river  banks.  When  he 
returned  to  his  office  he  called  all  the  executives  into 
a  meeting. 

“Dayton  will  have  an  awful  flood  to-day,”  he  an¬ 
nounced.  “We  must  prepare  to  house  and  feed  the  people 
who  will  be  driven  from  their  homes.” 

Mr.  Patterson,  crayon  in  hand,  turned  to  the  big  pedes¬ 
tal  pad  which  is  in  every  office  and  meeting  room  of  the 
N.  C.  R.  and  quickly  sketched  a  pyramid  organization  of 
the  executives  to  take  care  of  Dayton  when  the  flood  came. 
Then  he  said: 

“Gentlemen,  here  is  a  sketch  representing  the  organi¬ 
zation  known  as  the  N.  C.  R.  I  now  declare  the  N.  C.  R. 
out  of  commission  and  I  proclaim  the  Citizens’  Relief 
Association.  Here  is  its  organization.” 

The  new  organization  was  under  way  within  five 
minutes — the  meeting  had  lasted  less  than  ten  minutes. 
Every  motor  car  and  wagon  for  miles  around  was  rushing 
food,  bedding,  and  hospital  supplies  to  the  factory.  The 
N.  C.  R.  was  mobilizing  against  disaster.  I  once  asked 
Mr.  Patterson  how  it  came  about  that  he  was  so  sure  of 
himself — how  it  was  that  he  was  willing  to  throw  the 
whole  force  of  the  company  into  preparing  against  an 


304 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


event  which  had  not  yet  happened.  He  said,  very  simply, 
something  like  this: 

“I  had  studied  the  lay  of  the  land  for  years  and  I  did 
not  see  how  the  city  could  escape  being  some  day  caught  in 
a  big  overflow  of  the  Miami  River.  The  river’s  banks 
were  low;  drainage  of  land  above  the  city  was  poor;  the 
easiest  way  for  an  extra  amount  of  water  to  escape  was 
through  the  town;  and  the  country  that  the  stream  tapped 
was  such  that  it  would  some  day  inevitably  provide  more 
water  than  the  river  could  hold.  That  is  why  I  built  our 
plant  on  high  ground.  There  was  nothing  lucky  or  ac¬ 
cidental  about  that — nothing  to  marvel  about,  though 
people  did  marvel  at  our  forethought. 

“When  the  big  flood  came  we  did  not  rise  to  an  emer¬ 
gency,  because  there  was  nothing  unexpected  so  far  as  I 
was  concerned.  I  had  always  looked  for  just  what  then 
happened.  During  the  heavy  rains  that  preceded  the 
overflow  I  had  been  watching  the  river  carefully.  At  six 
o’clock  in  the  morning  of  the  day  of  the  flood  I  felt  that 
the  river  must  have  about  all  that  it  could  hold.  I  made 

i 

a  little  tour  of  inspection  in  a  motor  car,  and  although  no 
water  had  as  yet  come  over  the  banks  I  ordered  all  the 
extra  bread  that  our  baker  could  produce,  sent  dozens 
of  men  out  through  the  countryside  to  buy  provisions, 
gathered  cots  and  blankets  for  a  hospital  and  refuge, 
started  the  carpenter  shop  at  making  rough  large  flat- 
boats,  and  developed  a  working  relief  organization. 

“This  was  all  finished  early  in  the  morning.  At  seven 
o’clock  the  levee  broke  and  in  a  few  hours  the  city  was  the 
centre  of  a  raging  torrent.  But  we  had  ‘kept  ahead  of  the 
market’  and  were  ready.  Why  shouldn’t  we  have  been? 
If  a  river  is  rapidly  getting  more  water  than  it  can  hold 
isn’t  it  bound  to  overflow?  If  the  topography  of  the 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 


305 


country  is  such  that  the  easiest  place  for  an  overflow  is 
right  into  a  town,  why  then  should  a  flood  be  such  a  sur¬ 
prise?  If  you  start  a  rock  rolling  down  a  steep  hill,  is  it 
a  matter  of  any  great  surprise  if  it  reaches  the  bottom?” 

The  preparations  which  Mr.  Patterson  discussed  so 
casually  were  actually  on  a  magnificent  scale.  Neither 
he  nor  the  N.  C.  R.  had  ever  functioned  so  perfectly. 
The  best  and  most  graphic  account  is  that  written  by 
Arthur  Ruhl  in  the  Outlook — who  arrived  on  the  third  day: 

The  water  stayed  at  its  highest  level  for  several  hours,  fell  eleven 
inches  by  Wednesday  morning,  and  it  continued  to  fall  about  two  and 
one  half  inches  an  horn*.  By  Sunday  morning  everyone  had  left 
his  house,  or  was  able  to  do  so  by  boat,  and  the  haggard  prisoners 
could  descend  into  the  slimy  ruins  of  their  city.  .  .  . 

As  the  city  staggered  up  from  the  mire,  helpless  and  for  the  mo¬ 
ment  almost  hopeless,  there  was  one  rock  to  turn  to,  one  thing  which 
stood  high  and  bright  in  its  pride  of  strength  above  the  general  desola¬ 
tion.  This  was  the  plant  of  the  National  Cash  Register  Company  on 
the  southern  edge  of  the  town.  What  Dayton  might  have  done  with¬ 
out  John  H.  Patterson  and  the  highly  trained  and  flexible  organiza¬ 
tion,  the  keen,  taut,  loyal  force  which  surrounds  him,  can  only  be  a 
matter  of  speculation,  inasmuch  as  “The  Cash,”  as  they  familiarly 
speak  of  it  in  Dayton,  was  for  days  the  stricken  city’s  brain,  nerves,  al¬ 
most  its  food  and  drink. 

This  great  plant — a  city  in  itself — covering  the  equivalent  of 
eight  or  ten  city  blocks  in  what  is  practically  a  park,  with  asphalt 
streets,  lawns,  trees,  and  buildings  fitted  with  every  conceivable  de¬ 
tail  of  the  model  factory,  with  acres  of  workrooms  as  clean  and  light 
as  the  reading-room  of  a  public  library — this  polished  organism  was 
turned  in  a  twinkling,  without  discord  or  hitch,  into  a  vast,  smoothly 
working  executive  headquarters,  hotel,  hospital,  and  relief  station. 
Here  army,  city,  and  state  officials,  doctors,  nurses,  and  correspond¬ 
ents,  came.  Here,  all  day,  was  a  bread  line  two  blocks  long,  here  sup¬ 
plies  were  hurried  as  relief  trains  brought  them  in,  from  here  auto¬ 
mobiles  and  motor  trucks,  commandeered  wherever  they  could  be 
found,  went  sputtering  away  day  and  night  on  their  errands  of  mercy. 


306 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 

The  water  had  scarcely  rolled  over  the  city  before  the  National 
Cash  Register  carpenters  were  pounding  boats  together.  Boat-build¬ 
ing  was  not  their  regular  work,  but  that  seemed  to  make  no  difference, 
and  they  turned  out  one  every  seven  minutes  until  two  hundred  had 
been  built,  manned,  and  sent  out  to  rescue  people  from  house-tops  and 
second-story  windows.  By  Wednesday  night  a  special  National  Cash 
Register  relief  train  left  New  York,  and  two  others  followed  on 
Thursday  and  Friday.  The  president  of  the  company  himself  was 
made  chairman  of  the  Relief  and  Citizens’  Committees  and  almost 
dictator  of  the  town. 

There  appeared  to  be  nothing  to  which  this  factory  and  the  men 
connected  with  it  could  not  be  effectively  turned  at  a  moment’s 
notice.  There  was  a  place  for  everything  and  a  placard  to  tell  you 
where  it  was  and  how  to  get  there.  Among  the  buildings  is  a  huge 
ten-story  structure  used  ordinarily  for  the  executive  and  clerical 
force  and  the  company’s  welfare  work.  This  building  has  a  large 
dining  room  and  kitchen,  bedrooms  and  bathrooms,  rest-rooms,  and 
gymnasium.  Two  thousand  five  hundred  people  were  fed  here  for 
days  exclusive  of  the  ordinary  relief  work,  and  well  fed,  and  served  by 
waitresses  in  uniform  without  hurry  or  delay.  As  many  slept  in  the 
building,  the  more  fortunate  as  comfortably  as  in  the  best  city  hotel. 

The  sight  of  the  place,  alight  and  humming,  with  scores  of  auto¬ 
mobiles  rumbling  and  smoking  about  it,  was,  to  those  coming  up  from 
the  dismantled  city,  a  constant  wonder.  On  one  floor  newspaper 
correspondents  were  pounding  out  stories  to  all  the  world;  on  an¬ 
other,  in  the  hospital  quarters,  babies  were  being  born  or  flood  suf¬ 
ferers  fighting  pneumonia;  on  another,  heaps  of  clothing  sorted  out  and 
sprayed  with  disinfectants  before  distribution;  away  up  near  the  roof 
mothers  with  children  and  toothless  old  women  dozed  in  rocking- 
chairs,  while  pianos  pounded  out  rag-time  or  church  hymns. 

Just  what  such  an  oasis  means  is  difficult  to  realize  unless  one  has 
had  the  experience  of  a  city  literally  without  food,  water,  light,  or  the 
means  of  getting  about.  At  the  National  Cash  Register  plant  you 
might  have  thought  you  were  at  a  political  convention  or  in  some 
jolly  exposition  hall.  There  was  food  for  everyone,  coffee  and  sand¬ 
wiches  at  every  turn,  distilled  water  in  individual  paper  cups.  News¬ 
paper  reporters,  shot  off  by  their  city  editors  without  time  to  get  so 
much  as  a  toothbrush  or  a  collar,  found  themselves  sleeping  in  brand- 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 


307 


new  brass  bedsteads,  under  down  quilts,  and  rattling  round  in  tiled 
bathrooms,  where  everything  was  supplied  them,  even — if  they  had 
time  to  use  them — with  buffers  to  polish  their  finger-nails.  When 
their  clothing  gave  out  they  were  given  new  ones — clean  linen,  over¬ 
alls,  pajamas,  anything  they  needed.  Hard-worked  clerks  and  attend¬ 
ants  at  once  acquired  all  the  special  knowledge  of  valets  with  the 
gracious  manners  of  Southern  gentlemen.  Men  smeared  with  mud 
were  asked,  as  they  went  to  bed,  to  send  their  clothes  to  be  pressed, 
and  there  were  large  signs  posted  in  the  lower  corridor  stating  that 
clothes-pressers  and  barbers  worked  all  night  and  accepted  neither  pay 
nor  tips.  As  I  stepped  into  the  hall  late  last  night  a  young  man, 
serving  as  watchman  outside  the  door,  lifted  his  head  from  his  arms, 
murmured,  “Are  you  restin’  pretty  good?”  and,  satisfied  of  this,  re¬ 
turned  to  his  slumber.  To  step  from  the  silent,  sodden  city  into  this 
humming  Babel,  where  everything  seemed  to  be  had  for  the  asking, 
was  like  stepping  from  the  infernal  regions  to  one  of  those  sanitary 
socialistic  Utopias  pictured  by  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells. 

Only  this — and  here  was  the  piquant  interest  of  the  thing — was 
the  very  apotheosis  of  centralized,  one-man  power.  The  National 
Cash  Register  is,  in  a  peculiarly  complete  sense,  an  expression  of  the 
somewhat  eccentric  genius  of  one  man — an  industrial  captain.  No 
novelist  or  playwright  trying  to  picture  the  drama  of  modern  business 
ever  devised  anything  more  ingeniously  dramatic — this  heroic  use  of 
efficiency. 

The  president’s  son,  a  frank,  hustling,  unspoiled  youth,  worked 
day  and  night,  first  with  the  rescue  boats,  later  with  motor  cars,  and 
even  in  the  morgue.  His  daughter,  a  bright-eyed  girl  of  twenty-one 
perhaps,  was  at  work  with  the  other  waitresses  in  the  dining  room. 
The  town’s  feeling  toward  the  moving  spirit  of  this  concentrated 
efficiency  was  almost  religious  enthusiasm.  “Do  you  think,”  one  man 
asked  me — he  was  a  worker  away  over  in  the  Riverdale  section,  and 
nothing  had  been  said  of  Patterson — “if  God  Almighty  wasn’t  with 
him,  that  he  wouldn’t  have  a  wet  place  out  there!” — as  if  destiny  it¬ 
self  had  fixed  the  Cash  Register  buildings  on  high  ground. 

For  a  week  Patterson's  was  the  biggest  figure  in  the 
nation.  Then  he  went  on  about  his  affairs. 

Among  the  first  of  those  affairs  was  to  raise  a  fund  of  two 


308 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


million  dollars  to  provide  against  the  possibility  of  future 
floods.  Out  of  this  came  the  great  engineering  work  of 
the  Miami  Conservancy  District,  which  is  in  many  re¬ 
spects  second  only  to  the  Panama  Canal  in  engineering 
importance  and  which  has  precluded  the  possibility  of 
further  floods  in  Dayton. 

Mr.  Patterson  was  appointed  chairman  of  a  Citizens’ 
Relief  Committee  consisting  of  five  men:  Colonel  John 
H.  Patterson,  Colonel  Frank  T.  Huffman,  Mayor  Ed¬ 
ward  G.  Phillips,  Adam  Schantz,  and  John  R.  Flotron. 
As  chairman  he  was  given  “full  authority  to  act  for  and  in 
behalf  of  the  Citizens’  Relief  Committee  to  take  entire 
charge  of  the  relief  work  for  the  present  and  future  up¬ 
building  of  the  city.” 

This  committee  at  once  set  to  work  to  clean  up  Dayton 
— it  was  deep  in  slime.  To  quote  Mr.  Patterson: 

“After  the  Dayton  flood,  when  the  people  wanted  to 
abandon  the  town  to  its  ruins,  we  staged  a  meeting.  We 
had  a  great  red  heart  on  the  platform  with  contrasts  of 
what  Dayton  had  been,  what  it  was  then,  and  what  it 
might  be. 

“We  showed  stereopticon  views  of  the  pioneers  who  had 
made  Dayton  and  of  the  big,  individual  things  that  those 
stalwart  men  had  done.  We  did  that  because  in  the  audi¬ 
ence  were  many  descendants  of  those  very  men,  and  if  the 
descendants  were  won  over,  there  would  be  enough  leaven 
through  the  whole  audience  to  raise  it. 

“And  we  did  raise  that  audience!  At  the  beginning  of 
the  meeting  not  one  tenth  of  the  people  wanted  to  bother 
further  with  Dayton.  Then  they  began  to  be  interested 
— they  warmed  up,  bit  by  bit,  until  finally  you  could  not 
have  kept  their  money  in  their  pockets.  When  the  meet¬ 
ing  closed,  we  had  two  million  dollars  subscribed.  The 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 


309 


last  dollars  were  rung  up  on  an  enormous  cash  register 
standing  on  the  steps  of  the  court  house  amid  the  wildest 
enthusiasm  I  have  ever  known.” 

Of  this  two  million  dollars  Mr.  Patterson  and  the 
N.  C.  R.  gave  about  one  third.  And  the  whole  expense  of 
the  relief  work  of  the  company,  amounting  to  more  than 
a  million  dollars,  he  calmly  charged  as  an  operating  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  company! 

*1*  *•!-'  4*  *1*  4'  >1' 

*T*  *T*  'T*  ^T*  «t* 

Dayton  was  to  Mr.  Patterson  not  merely  the  place 
where  he  had  a  factory;  he  could  not  conceive  of  a  factory 
in  such  fashion;  he  could  not  conceive  of  a  city  in  such 
fashion.  For  a  factory  was  to  him  not  an  assorted  lot 
of  bricks  and  mortar  surrounding  an  assorted  lot  of  iron 
and  steel  contrivances.  A  factory  to  him  was  a  collection 
of  human  beings. 

He  had  brought  certain  people  together  to  work  in  the 
factory  he  owned  and  he  assumed  the  responsibility  of 
doing  all  in  his  power  to  make  their  lives  more  useful  than 
if  he  had  not  brought  them  together.  It  was  a  responsi¬ 
bility  which  had  no  limit.  He  did  not  say  that  he  assumed 
any  responsibility.  He  put  it  in  another  way.  He  said 
that  people — always  people — could  not  work  at  their 
best  unless  their  health  was  of  the  best.  And,  further,  they 
could  not  make  the  most  of  their  health  unless  their  edu¬ 
cation  was  of  the  best.  He  translated  all  of  this  into  the 
single  mercantile  phrase — “It  Pays.” 

He  made  his  own  factory  a  good  place  in  which  to  work; 
he  went  as  far  as  he  could  toward  seeing  that  the  factory 
supplied  the  sanitary  and  medical  facilities  that  the  home 
might  lack — for,  in  the  beginning,  it  was  beyond  him  to  go 
into  the  homes.  But,  as  time  went  on,  he  saw  that  the 
homes  of  the  people  and  what  they  did  when  not  at  work 


310 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


were  even  more  important  than  the  conditions  under 
which  they  worked.  He  was  not  content  that  the  work 
of  the  N.  C.  R.  should  stop  at  its  doors.  And  so  he  went 
into  the  cleaning  up  of  Dayton. 

He  had  other  reasons  for  wanting  Dayton  to  be  the  best 
city  of  its  size  anywhere.  It  was  his  city.  His  ancestors 
had  helped  to  build  it.  Whatever  was  his  had  to  be  of  the 
best.  Another  man  might  have  faltered  before  the  task 
of  remaking  a  whole  city  and  moved  his  own  residence 
to  some  spot  that  did  not  need  so  much  improvement. 
Many  wealthy  men  spend  their  less  active  days  in  buying 
mansions  in  those  parts  of  the  earth  which  seem  pleasing. 
The  average  rich  man  collects  more  houses  than  he  knows 
what  to  do  with.  Not  so  with  Mr.  Patterson;  he  did  not 
spend  a  great  deal  of  time  in  Dayton — he  was  always 
travelling.  But  Dayton  was  his  home,  and  his  house  at 
Far  Hills  was  his  only  house.  In  addition  to  it,  he  had 
only  a  camp  in  the  Adirondacks.  He  had  not  the  least 
interest  in  what  is  called  “society”  and  so,  buying  a  house 
in  some  fashionable  locality,  either  in  the  United  States  or 
abroad,  never  occurred  to  him.  His  home  was  in  Dayton. 

And  did  the  citizens  of  Dayton  respect  his  motives  and 
join  with  him  to  make  a  better  Dayton?  They  did  noth¬ 
ing  of  the  kind! 

During  the  critical  years  when  the  N.  C.  R.  was  build¬ 
ing,  a  fair  portion  of  the  citizens  of  Dayton  and  all  the 
politicians  dideverything  in  theirpower  to  block  any  move¬ 
ment  which  might  benefit  the  N.  C.  R.  Mr.  Patterson 
was  regarded  as  a  menace.  For  who  had  ever  heard  of 
treating  employees  the  way  he  treated  them,  or  paying 
higher  wages  than  it  was  necessary  to  pay  ?  And  why  have 
so  much  nonsense  about  buildings  and  landscape  garden¬ 
ing?  Why  not  run  a  factory  instead  of  a  show?  To  the 


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THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 


311 


politicians  the  N.  C.  R.  was  a  big,  rich  corporation  that 
ought  to  come  across  in  a  substantial  way.  Mr.  Patterson 
refused  to  come  across;  he  would  not  pay  a  cent  for  muni¬ 
cipal  favours.  And  therefore  the  politicians  took  care 
that  he  suffered  for  his  independence.  For  years  they 
kept  a  railway  siding  from  him,  and  all  the  company  ma¬ 
terial  had  to  be  trucked  across  town;  they  were  always 
turning  up  with  technical  violations  of  the  law.  If  the 
N.  C.  R.  wanted  a  permit  which  any  private  citizen  could 
get  as  of  course  in  ten  minutes,  the  politicians  found  some 
way  of  holding  up  action. 

In  addition,  the  city  was  “wide  open”  in  every  sense; 
its  schools  were  poor,  and  its  streets  were  dirty.  It  was  a 
one-horse  town  controlled  by  a  political  ring. 

Conditions  became  so  bad  that  along  in  the  early  nine¬ 
teen  hundreds  Mr.  Patterson  let  it  be  known  that  he  in¬ 
tended  to  move  the  whole  factory  to  some  other  city.  He 
was  in  earnest  in  this.  No  one  at  first  believed  him.  The 
politicians  just  laughed  and  gave  him  some  private  advice 
about  how  to  use  a  little  of  the  right  kind  of  oil  so  that  he 
might  not  have  so  much  trouble  in  getting  what  he  wanted. 
Mr.  Patterson  went  right  ahead  with  his  plans  to  move. 
Delegations  from  many  cities  came  to  him;  he  had  offers 
of  free  sites  in  half-a-dozen  big  cities.  He  did  not  want  to 
move,  but  Dayton  had  become  all  but  impossible.  The 
business  men  finally  awoke  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Patterson 
was  in  earnest  and  they  asked  for  an  opportunity  to  hear 
the  N.  C.  R.’s  reasons  for  leaving.  Mr.  Patterson  was  not 
in  Dayton — he  stayed  away  through  much  of  this  period. 
The  general  manager  presented  the  case  and  this  is  in 
part  what  he  said — and  it  is  important  as  showing  the 
feeling  of  the  period: 

“We  do  not  know  whether  we  are  going  to  move  or  not. 


312 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Nobody  knows  that.  When  we  do  we  will  be  the  first  to 
tell  our  employees. 

“People  say  all  over  town,  ‘You  cannot  move  that 
place.’  Let  me  tell  you  this:  Mr.  Patterson  was  never 
more  serious  about  anything  in  his  life  than  about  taking 
this  plant  away  from  here,  if  he  can  get  the  right  kind 
of  financial  inducement.  You  business  men  of  Dayton 
might  as  well  know  this  now.  People  come  here  and  offer 
us  this  and  that  and  we  are  carefully  weighing  both  sides 
of  the  question. 

“We  know  exactly  how  much  it  will  cost  to  move  this 
factory  and  there  are  several  cities  which  have  already 
practically  agreed  to  assume  the  amount  of  our  moving 
expenses  in  order  to  secure  the  location  of  a  factory  with  a 
payroll  of  $4,000,000  a  year  now,  and  it  will  be  $8,000,000 
in  five  years. 

“We  have  been  forced  in  self-defense  to  hurt  Dayton. 
Do  you  suppose  manufacturers  in  Pittsburg,  Buffalo, 
Syracuse,  Rochester,  Troy,  and  many  other  cities  would 
think  of  moving  to  Dayton  when  the  biggest  plant  in  Day- 
ton  is  trying  to  get  out  of  it?  This  has  all  been  brought  up 
by  Dayton  itself,  that  is,  not  by  all  of  the  people  of  Day- 
ton,  but  by  the  actions  of  the  officials  and  apparently 
with  the  consent  of  the  people,  because  very  few  have 
uttered  any  protest. 

“Now,  I  will  put  the  question  plainly  to  you  business 
men:  Would  you  continue  in  a  town  that  would  not  help 
you  to  increase  and  extend  your  business;  that  would  call 
you  crazy  and  would  scoff  and  laugh  at  your  methods? 
Would  you  continue  in  a  town  that  not  only  refused  a 
public  park,  but  is  still  refusing  to  take  action  toward 
getting  one?  Would  you  stay  in  a  town  where  the  senti¬ 
ment  of  the  people  was  such  as  to  keep  your  employees 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN  313 

unsettled  and  stirred  up  all  the  time  about  their  posi¬ 
tions? 

“  We  have  tried  to  bring  skilled  men  here  from  cities  in 
the  East  and  some  in  the  West.  They  say  to  us:  ‘What 
advantages  are  there  in  living  in  Dayton?  What  amuse¬ 
ments  have  you  there?  Where  could  I  go  with  my  family 
for  recreation?  Have  you  a  park?  Have  you  a  river 
that  we  can  go  boating  on?’  Now  we  have  to  answer 
these  people  truthfully  and  tell  them  we  haven’t  these 
things.  If  we  told  them  the  truth  we  would  say:  ‘We 
have  a  plot  of  ground  that  could  be  used  for  park  pur¬ 
poses,  but  which  is  used  for  horses  and  one  week  out  of  the 
year  is  used  for  races  and  a  fair.  The  balance  of  the  time 
it  lies  idle.  The  people  could  use  this  for  a  park  if  they 
would  arouse  themselves  and  take  action.’ 

“The  one  argument  we  have  used,  and  which  is  an  ad¬ 
vantage  to  many  of  them,  is  the  fact  that  we  have  good 
markets;  that  the  farmers  come  in  with  their  wagons, 
back  up  to  the  sidewalks,  and  that  the  people  can  buy 
anything  fresh  and  cheap  direct  from  the  farmers.  We 
have  used  this  argument  until  it  is  threadbare,  because 
we  had  to  give  some  advantages  of  moving  to  Dayton. 

“Then,  after  we  do  bring  people  out  here,  after  using 
all  kinds  of  arguments,  they  get  dissatisfied  and  disgrun¬ 
tled  in  a  short  time  because  of  the  many  malicious  things 
that  are  said  against  the  company.  They  hear  down¬ 
town  that  their  positions  are  in  danger,  that  the  presi¬ 
dent  of  the  company  is  crazy,  that  the  company  will  go 
bankrupt,  that  we  are  heavily  mortgaged,  etc.,  and  they 
soon  become  discouraged.  You  may  not  think  these 
things  exist.  We  know  they  do.  We  have  plenty  of 
proof  on  that  score. 

“Now,  gentlemen,  what  Dayton  needs  is  to  wake  up 


314 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


along  many  lines,  get  in  line  with  the  most  progressive 
cities  of  the  country,  have  a  ‘citizens’  party’  and  elect  men 
to  office  regardless  of  their  politics,  have  a  committee  that 
will  look  after  the  interests  of  its  citizens  and  see  that  in¬ 
justices  are  not  done,  that  will  prosecute  unfair  officials, 
that  will  demand  the  resignations  of  incompetent  officials — 
a  committee  that  will  be  active  and  will  work  in  the  in¬ 
terests  of  the  city.  Then,  instead  of  our  plant  trying  to 
get  out  of  the  city,  you  would  find  a  number  of  plants 
trying  to  get  into  the  city. 

“Let  the  business  men  of  Dayton  get  together  and  stop 
abusing  a  man  because  of  his  progressive  ideas  and  let 
this  committee  endeavour  to  have  more  of  Dayton’s  busi¬ 
ness  men  adopt  modern  ideas.” 

From  this  period  dates  the  formal  recognition  of  Mr. 
Patterson  as  Dayton’s  first  citizen.  He  began  to  be  a 
prophet  not  without  honour  in  his  own  country.  The 
people  began  to  realize  how  little  of  Dayton  would  remain 
if  the  N.  C.  R.  were  taken  away  and  then,  very  gradually, 
to  comprehend  something  of  the  worth  of  Mr.  Patterson 
as  a  citizen.  That  comprehension  did  not  reach  its 
height  until  after  the  flood  in  1913,  which  has  been 
already  told  of,  but  the  business  men  of  Dayton  backed 
up  by  a  majority  of  the  citizens  compelled  the  politi¬ 
cians  to  lessen  their  opposition  to  the  company  and  so  to 
change  conditions  that  the  company  would  not  move. 

Mr.  Patterson  had  long  before  this  sketched  his  ideas  of 
government.  He  thought  that  a  government  was  merely 
a  business  institution — a  great  company  in  which  the 
citizens  were  the  stockholders.  He  had  many  charts 
drawn  showing  how  the  city  of  Dayton,  the  state  of 
Ohio,  and  the  United  States,  were  really  but  great  cor¬ 
porations  in  whose  administration  partisan  politics  should 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 


315 


not  enter.  He  held  that  as  long  as  politics  were  partisan, 
the  offices  would  be  used  to  pay  political  debts  and  there¬ 
fore  would  go  to  the  best  wire  pullers  and  talkers  instead 
of  to  the  men  best  qualified.  He  did  not  like  the  Civil 
Service  idea  because  no  examination  could  answer  the  two 
vital  questions  to  him  in  the  selection  of  an  officer — 
“What  has  he  done?”  and  “What  can  he  do?”  Often  he 
said: 

“Our  present  form  of  government  cannot  succeed.  Wre 
must  organize  as  a  business.” 

He  used  to  call  the  United  States  “the  biggest  business 
in  the  world.” 

Naturally  this  approach  was  not  one  to  endear  him  to 
the  professional  politician.  The  first  opportunity  to  ex¬ 
press  his  views  came  in  1896 — long  before  the  agitation 
about  moving  the  factory — when  he  was  asked  to  make  a 
speech  at  the  banquet  celebrating  the  Dayton  Centennial. 
This  is,  in  many  ways,  the  most  important  address  which 
Mr.  Patterson  ever  delivered,  for  in  it  he  sketched  a  whole 
programme  for  the  betterment  of  Dayton — a  programme 
which  his  hearers  thought  was  merely  fantastic.  This 
address  shows  how  early  Mr.  Patterson  had  formed  plans 
for  Dayton — plans  far  in  advance  of  the  thought  of  the 
time.  The  extraordinary  feature  is  that  in  the  years 
following  nearly  every  suggestion  which  he  made  in  the 
address  has  been  carried  out — as  will  be  developed  in  the 
next  chapter.  The  address  was  printed  in  the  Dayton 
newspapers  and  Mr.  Patterson  also  had  it  reprinted  in 
many  thousands  of  copies  and  circulated  through  the 
whole  country.  The  entire  address  is  too  long  to  print  in 
full,  but  the  essential  parts  follow: 

“What  ought  the  Dayton  of  the  future  to  be?  Does  its 
greatness  depend  upon  the  matter  of  its  population?  If 


316 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


it  does,  then  Peking,  with  all  its  squalor  and  vice,  is  a 
great  city.  To  become  really  great,  however,  our  city 
must  accomplish  the  largest  amount  of  good  for  the  largest 
number  of  her  citizens,  uniting  all  the  best  things  which 
exist  in  other  cities  into  an  ideal  city.  Does  she  do  this 
now?  No;  and  why  not?  Because  we  are  not  educated 
sufficiently  to  realize  our  most  urgent  needs.  We  have  no 
definite  municipal  ideas.  Before  we  can  have  a  great  city, 
we  must  learn  what  a  truly  great  city  should  be.  We 
must  first  educate  the  people.  .  .  . 

“The  Dayton  of  the  future  will  choose  for  her  bulwark 
greater  schools.  The  schoolhouses  will  be  built  on  hy¬ 
gienic  principles.  Children  will  study  in  an  atmosphere 
of  beauty,  amid  good  pictures  and  statuary.  All  school 
books  will  be  sold  at  cost  by  an  agent  of  the  state,  and  will 
not  be  changed  every  three  months.  We  shall  commence 
with  a  large  number  of  kindergartens,  the  influence  of  which 
will  eradicate  the  bad  and  upbuild  the  good  in  our  children. 

“Evening  sessions  of  our  schools  will  be  held  for  those 
who  cannot  attend  during  the  day,  and  we  shall  found  a 
large  number  of  scholarships  for  study  and  travel.  The 
news  of  each  day  will  be  bulletined  in  the  schoolhouse, 
so  that  the  scholars  may  be  kept  posted  in  current 
events.  .  .  . 

“Machinery  has  compelled  large  numbers  of  women,  as 
well  as  men,  who  have  no  special  training,  to  change  their 
work.  And  to  these  new  women  is  open  the  household. 
We  will  elevate  domestic  work  by  teaching  it  as  a  science 
in  the  schools  and  by  influencing  rich  and  well-to-do 
people  to  make  it  fashionable  by  teaching  it  to  their 
daughters,  who  will  lend  a  helping  hand  to  the  housemaid, 
as  they  do  to-day  in  England. 

“Our  schools  of  the  future  will  have  courses  in  design- 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 


317 


ing  patterns  for  carpets,  wallpaper,  and  dress  goods,  for 
freehand  drawing  and  illustrating,  glass  decorating, 
feather-,  flower-,  and  bead-work,  architectural  drawing,  and 
ornamentation  of  a  useful  and  artistic  nature.  They  will 
teach  landscape  gardening  and  scientific  farming.  There 
will  be  classes  in  health,  ethics,  and  finance.  The  boys 
will  be  given  opportunity  to  study  salesmanship,  politics, 
philanthropy,  and  the  principles  of  statesmanship  and 
sociology.  The  girls  will  be  taught  cooking,  dressmaking, 
and  food  chemistry,  which  are  now  picked  up  at  hap¬ 
hazard,  and  in  many  cases  never  learned  at  all. 

“With  manual  training  schools,  we  shall  be  able  to 
create  a  home  industry  in  all  the  toys  and  bric-a-brac 
which  we  now  get  in  foreign  countries,  and  for  which 
millions  of  dollars  are  sent  abroad  annually.  We  shall 
keep  this  money  at  home  by  teaching  our  own  people  to 
make  goods  for  which  it  is  now  sent  abroad. 

“In  Dayton  of  the  future  the  city  proper  will  be  given 
up  to  business  life,  while  our  homes  will  be  situated  in 
beautiful  suburbs.  Our  greater  Dayton  will  extend  its 
radius  for  miles  in  every  direction  over  its  circlet  of  beauti¬ 
ful  hills.  Special  rates  of  fare  will  be  given  to  working¬ 
men  during  certain  hours  of  the  day  to  encourage  their 
residence  in  the  suburbs.  The  working  day  will  be  short¬ 
er,  necessitating  the  employment  of  more  workmen;  a 
more  general  system  of  education  will  create  better  work¬ 
men,  so  that  wages  will  increase  rather  than  diminish, 
and  the  living  necessities  of  this  class  would  now  be  con¬ 
sidered  luxuries.  It  follows  that  there  will  be  a  market 
for  all  products,  and  that  the  law  of  supply  and  demand 
will  govern  as  it  does  to-day. 

“Employers  in  the  Dayton  of  the  future  will  come  more 
in  personal  contact  with  their  employees,  and  will  teach 


318 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


them  their  methods  of  earning  and  saving  money;  they 
will  become  social  missionaries,  acting  for  the  good  of  the 
city,  and  will  teach  their  men  so  to  live  that  they  may  get 
the  largest  amount  of  happiness  from  life. 

“In  the  future  women  employees  will  be  permitted  to 
discontinue  work  one  half  hour  earlier  than  the  men  in 
order  that  they  may  avoid  the  rush  for  street  cars.  This 
practice  has  paid  our  company  well. 

“In  this  new  Dayton  all  wires  and  all  pipes  will  be 
carried  under  the  streets  in  large  sewers,  so  that  repairs  to 
them  can  be  made  without  tearing  up  the  streets.  Fran¬ 
chises  for  all  private  enterprises  which  in  any  way  occupy 
the  streets  will  be  sold  every  twenty-five  years  to  the 
highest  bidder,  and  from  this  source  the  city  will  gain  a 
large  income,  which  can  be  used  in  making  beautiful  her 
thoroughfares. 

“The  new  Dayton  will  have  not  only  one  library,  but  a 
system  of  libraries  scattered  through  the  different  wards. 
One  of  the  greatest  aids  to  increase  cultivation  will  be 
the  fact  that  the  library  will  seek  its  readers.  Our 
children  will  read  good  literature,  because  it  will  be  ac¬ 
cessible.  We  shall  have  a  free  conservatory  of  music,  a 
free  art  school  and  art  gallery,  and  those  who  own  valuable 
collections  of  paintings  will  get  up  loan  exhibitions,  where 
even  the  poorest  may  enjoy  their  treasures  at  certain  times 
in  the  year.  Free  lecture  courses  will  also  be  given. 

“We  shall  have  a  competent  board  of  health  to  attend 
to  our  sanitary  condition.  In  case  an  epidemic  should 
break  out,  whom  should  the  poor  woman  who  sits  by  the 
sick-bed  blame?  Not  herself,  but  the  city,  and  it  will  pay 
all  loss  occurring  to  the  private  individual  in  such  cases. 

“In  the  future  our  city  will  be  better  illuminated,  for 
light  will  be  cheaper;  the  excess  paid  by  the  city  to  secure 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 


319 


proper  lighting  will  be  regarded  as  a  legitimate  outlay  for 
public  protection,  the  same  as  for  police.  The  doorways 
of  our  dark  and  gloomy  houses  will  be  illuminated  in  the 
evening  with  coloured  lanterns.  No  smoke  will  defile 
the  city,  for  gas  will  be  made  at  the  mines  and  electricity  at 
far-away  water-powers,  and  will  be  supplied  at  low  prices. 
In  those  days  there  will  be  no  monopoly  in  light  and  heat 
any  more  than  in  coal  and  bread.  .  .  . 

“How  shall  we  get  money  to  accomplish  all  these 
changes?  The  officials  to-day  control  revenues  which  are 
sufficient  to  bring  them  about.  Who  prevents  the  people 
from  controlling  these  revenues?  The  politician:  the 
‘boss,’  who  never  makes  a  speech,  has  no  views  on  the 
public  questions,  and  whose  emotions  are  those  of  mer¬ 
cenary  calculation  only.  It  is  the  ‘boss’  who  lines  up 
delegates,  and  depends  upon  row  after  row  of  dutiful 
henchmen  to  vote  as  he  directs.  A  poor  system  in  the 
city  will  do  more  for  the  public  good  with  an  able  and 
honest,  self-dependent  council  at  the  head  of  it  than  the 
best  system  with  a  political  ‘boss’  at  the  helm.  An 
unworthy  head  at  once  devitalizes  a  city  government. 
This  is  true,  no  matter  what  the  clime,  race,  confusion  of 
races,  or  form  of  government. 

“Woe  to  the  city  whose  officers,  even  though  honest 
themselves,  are  the  creatures  of  the  ‘boss’  of  its  political 
slums.  No  public  officer  can  serve  two  masters,  and  there 
never  was,  and  never  can  be,  good  government  through 
‘boss’  rule.  The  ‘boss’  does  not  nourish  resentments;  he 
never  looks  to  the  newspapers  for  praise;  he  is  heedless 
of  their  criticism.  We  must  abolish  the  ‘boss.’  It  is  as 
much  our  duty  to  do  it  as  it  would  be  to  drain  a  swamp  and 
protect  the  health  of  our  city.  This  is  the  right  thing  to 
do;  it  ought  to  be  done;  the  people  will  say  it  shall  be  done. 


320 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“It  is  a  small  matter  to  manage  a  city,  for  we  have  noth¬ 
ing  to  do  but  to  spend  money;  whereas,  in  a  large  business 
we  have  not  only  to  spend  money,  but  to  spend  it  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  money  in  return,  which  increases  the 
difficulty  tenfold.  We  expend  in  our  business  about 
$2,000,000  a  year;  the  city  of  Dayton  spends  about 
$1,000,000.  A  city  is  a  great  business  enterprise  whose 
stockholders  are  the  people. 

“Here  you  must  pardon  me  for  illustrating  from  my 
own  personal  experience.  We  have  found  a  monitor  cash- 
register  machine  system  which  organizes  the  business  of 
retail  stores  and  brings  order  out  of  chaos.  It  does  not 
prevent  wrong-doing;  it  does  not  prevent  mistakes;  but  it 
tells  the  proprietor  after  they  have  occurred,  and  he  can 
thus  guard  against  similar  errors. 

“We  have  applied  this  system  to  our  factory  and  busi¬ 
ness,  in  which  one  thousand  five  hundred  people  are 
employed.  Here  two  of  the  stockholders  took  the  place 
of  the  monitor  machine,  and  acted  as  guardians  and  ad¬ 
visers  of  the  company.  Experts  have  pronounced  ours  the 
best  system  of  factory  organization  in  the  world.  As  a 
result  of  it  the  product  of  the  company  has  increased  in 
quantity  and  improved  in  quality,  while  the  cost  has  been 
lowered.  If  this  system  has  succeeded  in  the  modern 
factory,  why  should  it  not  succeed  in  the  city,  where  the 
problems  to  be  solved  are  not  one  tenth  as  difficult? 

“This  monitor  should  be  a  self-appointed  body  of  men, 
who  have  sufficient  ability  and  integrity  to  inspire  the 
people  with  confidence,  and  might  be  called  a  monitor 
club.  Five  good  active  men  ought  to  accept  this  trust. 
The  majority  of  the  committee  should  rule,  and  they 
should  rotate  the  chairmanship.  Each  of  these  five  mem¬ 
bers  should  act  as  chairman  to  a  sub-committee,  com- 


THE  MAN  AS  A  CITIZEN 


321 


posed  of  himself  and  four  others  to  be  appointed  by  him, 
thus  making  twenty-five  members  in  all.  For  example, 
the  health  division  might  be  divided  into  five  committees 
— sewerage,  water,  bath,  hospital,  and  house  sanitation. 
We  should  thus  have  twenty-five  committees,  each  com¬ 
posed  of  one  man. 

“Our  municipal  affairs  would  be  placed  upon  a  strict 
business  basis  and  directed,  not  by  partisans,  either  Re¬ 
publican  or  Democratic,  but  by  men  who  are  skilled  in 
business  management  and  social  science;  who  would 
treat  our  people’s  money  as  a  trust  fund,  to  be  expended 
wisely  and  economically,  without  waste,  and  for  the  bene¬ 
fit  of  all  citizens.  Good  men  would  take  an  interest  in 
municipal  government,  and  we  should  have  more  states¬ 
men  and  fewer  politicians.  .  .  . 

“The  monitor  club  should  have  no  executive  authority, 
but  should  simply  report  to  the  proprietors  of  the  city 
(the  people)  all  that  occurred  and  solicit  information, 
complaints,  and  suggestions  from  all  citizens.  Such  a 
club  would  have  called  the  attention  of  the  public  in 
advance  to  the  South  Ludlow  Street  sewer.  They  started 
to  build  a  stone  arch  about  a  mile  long  over  the  open  creek, 
which  contained  nothing  but  surface  water.  It  was 
plainly  so  much  larger  than  the  requirement  that  I  called 
the  attention  of  the  authorities  to  the  matter,  and  the 
work  was  stopped,  the  rest  of  it  being  constructed  of  the 
proper  dimensions.  This  arch  will  probably  stand  for  one 
thousand  years  as  a  monument  to  those  city  officials. 

“Large  amounts  of  money  should  not  be  spent  for  any 
purpose  until  the  amount  and  manner  of  expenditure  had 

been  previously  announced  through  the  press  or  in  some 

« 

other  public  manner,  and  those  who  take  public  contracts 
should  not  be  allowed  to  sublet  them. 


322 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“I  have  talked  over  this  monitor  system  for  cities  with 
some  of  the  best  thinkers  of  New  York,  all  of  whom 
heartily  endorse  it.  I  believe  that  it  will  enable  us,  if  it  is 
adopted  in  Dayton,  to  accomplish  all  we  so  much  desire  in 
the  future.  By  it  a  healthy  public  sentiment  will  be  culti¬ 
vated,  which  will  hold  in  just  execration  the  man  who 
misplaces  the  trust  of  the  people  and  causes  them  to  lose 
large  benefits. 

“We  need  to  aid  us  public-spirited  papers  which  will 
‘call  a  spade  a  spade.’  The  New  York  papers  spend  five 
editorial  lines  in  denouncing  the  ‘boss,’  on  another  page 
they  illustrate  a  banquet  given  to  him,  and  the  rest  of  the 
page  is  taken  up  in  describing  his  horses,  his  retinue  of 
servants,  and  the  trip  which  his  family  is  about  to  take 
abroad.  Under  the  monitor  system  such  things  will  be 
held  up  to  ridicule  and  contempt,  and  we  will  rather 
honour  him  who,  at  the  risk  of  unpopularity,  points  out 
wrong-doing  among  those  in  power.” 

That  speech  was  Mr.  Patterson’s  challenge  to  the 
bosses.  They  accepted  the  challenge  and  they  fought 
him! 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON 

WHEN  the  agitation  against  the  removal  of  the 
factory  from  Dayton  was  on,  Mr.  Patterson 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  president  of  the  Booster 
Club  in  which  he  referred  to  his  address  of  eleven  years 
before — showing  that  the  plans  he  had  formulated  were 
ever  with  him.  In  this  he  said: 

Dear  Sir:  I  see  by  the  Dayton  papers  that  the  Booster  Club  pro¬ 
poses  making  some  kind  of  a  demonstration  or  a  visitation  on  my 
return  home,  and  I  note  that  you  are  president  of  the  club.  While  I 
wish  to  thank  the  club  for  its  kind  intentions,  I  must  positively  de¬ 
cline  any  reception,  demonstration,  or  resolutions. 

The  proposed  removal  of  our  plant  from  Dayton  is  too  serious 
a  matter  to  treat  lightly.  It  is  a  business  proposition  and  we  place 
Dayton  in  the  same  position  that  we  place  other  cities;  that  is,  we 
will  be  pleased  to  show  the  business  people  of  Dayton  through  our 
plant,  and  let  them  judge  of  the  value  it  is  to  Dayton,  and  after  they 
have  seen  it,  we  will  be  pleased  to  have  their  proposition  as  to  what 
they  will  do  to  have  The  N.  C.  R.  Company’s  offices  and  factory  re¬ 
main  in  Dayton.  I  must  say,  however,  that  there  are  so  many  reasons 
why  we  should  leave  Dayton,  and  so  many  advantages  in  locating 
the  plant  in  other  places,  that  it  will  be  almost  impossible  for  Dayton 
to  retain  it. 

Now  there  are  certain  things  that  the  Dayton  people  can  do  and 
which  they  ought  to  do  regardless  of  whether  The  N.  C.  R.  Company 
remains  in  Dayton  or  not.  If  the  business  men  and  others  in  Dayton 
are  as  earnest  in  their  protestations  as  they  appear  to  be  from  the 
newspapers  which  have  been  forwarded  to  me,  they  will  commence 
at  once  to  improve  conditions  in  Dayton,  because  works  and  not 
words  will  count  now.  The  people  of  Dayton  should  do  these  things 

S2S 


324 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


in  their  own  interest  and  because  it  is  right  to  do  them,  and  not  solely 
to  retain  our  plant.  It  is  not  necessary  to  wait  until  I  get  home  to 
start  to  do  them.  .  .  . 

Dayton  should  welcome  all  railroads  at  surface  grades.  It  is 
ridiculous  for  a  town  of  the  size  of  Dayton  to  build  a  wall  around  it¬ 
self,  and  say  they  cannot  come  into  it  except  overhead  or  under¬ 
ground.  Nothing  will  make  Dayton  grow  so  fast  as  more  railroads. 
Transportation  and  publication  make  the  world  progress  more  than 
anything  else,  and  just  in  proportion  as  a  country,  a  state,  or  a  city  has 
these  things,  will  she  progress. 

Dayton  seems  to  have  gone  to  extremes  on  this  question  of  grade 
crossings,  and  nothing  that  the  citizens  can  do  could  hurt  the  town  as 
much  as  to  have  these  reports  scattered  broadcast  that  not  another 
railroad  could  come  into  Dayton  at  surface  grade.  Capital  is  not 
going  to  invest  in  railroads  when  such  conditions  exist. 

The  people  of  Dayton  should  use  their  influence  to  have  the  state 
stop  expending  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  repairing  the  canal, 
which  can  never  be  of  any  value.  It  should  be  converted  into  a  rail¬ 
road  bed,  the  railroad  paying  the  proper  compensation  to  the  state  for 
the  right  of  way.  When  I  was  in  China  I  noticed  that  they  were 
making  railroads  of  the  canal  beds.  When  I  got  back  to  Dayton  I 
saw  that  we  were  taking  dirt  out  of  the  canal  and  dumping  it  on  the 
railroad  tracks  alongside  of  it.  Just  think  of  the  absurdity  of  the 
thing — taking  mud  out  of  a  canal  and  dumping  it  on  a  railroad  track. 

We  want  our  plant  to  be  connected  with  at  least  two  railroads, 
and  in  case  we  move  away  from  Dayton,  this  will  help  your  club  to 
induce  other  factories  to  come  to  Dayton  and  occupy  the  buildings 
which  we  are  unable  to  move  away  from  Dayton.  This  would  in¬ 
clude  our  old  office  building  and  one  or  two  others  not  constructed  of 
steel. 

The  Booster  Club  should  stop  the  extension  of  the  city  limits. 
Dayton  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  worst-governed  city  of  the 
state,  and  many  of  its  people  seem  to  be  proud  of  the  reputation. 
The  government  of  the  city  and  county  should  be  taken  out  of 
politics,  the  citizens  to  vote  for  the  best  men  regardless  of  party;  the 
newspapers  of  Dayton  to  support  in  this  movement  to  nominate  a 
“Citizens’  Ticket,”  instead  of  supporting  party  tickets. 

Another  thing  clearly  needed  to  be  done  is  to  demand  the  resigna- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  325 


tion  of  certain  seven  or  eight  members  of  the  Council  who  are  a 
detriment  to  the  city.  I  understand  that  the  Council  reorganized  a 
few  months  ago  and  that  seven  or  eight  members  are  in  control  of  all 
the  important  committees,  and  one  man  boasts  that  he  controls  eight 
members  of  Council,  and  that  these  men  defy  public  opinion,  and  have 
pledged  each  other  to  stick  together  for  the  passage  of  certain  measures 
which  are  not  for  the  best  interests  of  Dayton.  The  members  of  the 
Booster  Club  know  who  these  men  are  and  should  demand  their  res¬ 
ignations.  How  long  can  they  remain  in  office  if  the  people  of 
Dayton  are  sincere  about  wanting  better  officials? 

Organize  a  vigilance  committee  which  will  look  after  the  interests 
of  the  city  and  see  that  fair  play  is  given  to  everyone — this  com¬ 
mittee  to  prosecute  unfair  officials,  and  to  make  public  wrongful  acts 
of  these  officials.  The  mayor  should  appoint  an  investigating  com¬ 
mittee  to  investigate  the  action  of  the  City  Council  and  other  public 
officials.  I  will  pay  one  thousand  dollars  personally  toward  the 
expenses  of  such  a  committee. 

More  effort  should  be  made  to  put  down  crime  in  Dayton.  We 
should  have  and  could  have  the  most  efficient  police  force  of  any 
town  in  the  country.  Our  county  and  state  officials  should  co¬ 
operate  to  punish  criminals  and  we  should  not  have  the  awful  spec¬ 
tacle  we  have  had  recently  of  county  and  city  officials  not  working 
together  to  locate  and  punish  criminals.  I  learn  that  there  are  more 
murders  in  Montgomery  County  than  in  any  other  county  in  the 
state,  and  that  there  are  three  men  now  awaiting  execution  in  Colum¬ 
bus  for  murder  committed  in  Montgomery  County. 

It  is  cheaper  to  form  the  characters  of  young  than  to  try  to  re¬ 
form  the  adults.  We  need  a  higher  public  sentiment  in  Dayton. 
We  need  better  schools  and  a  greater  variety  of  practical  things 
taught  in  them,  such  as  domestic  economy  in  all  its  branches,  cook¬ 
ing,  laundering,  marketing,  gardening,  home  decorations,  commer¬ 
cial  and  manual  training. 

About  eleven  years  ago  at  the  anniversary  of  Dayton  I  gave  a 
talk  on  what  should  be  done  to  improve  Dayton;  this  talk  was  after¬ 
ward  printed  by  the  Board  of  Trade.  I  had  hoped  that  the  churches 
would  take  it  up  and  at  least  make  some  effort,  but  they  have  not  done 
so.  They  should  be  aroused  now  to  correct  public  feeling  in  favour  of 
all  good  things  which  would  help  Dayton,  and  to  put  down  all  things 


326 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


which  would  hurt  Dayton.  If  they  would  only  do  what  Christ 
would  do  if  He  were  to  come  to  Dayton,  Dayton  would  occupy  a 
different  position  in  the  public  mind. 

I  wish  to  say  again  that  this  is  too  important  a  matter  for  Dayton 
and  for  The  N.  C.  R.  Company  to  waste  any  words  in  compliments 
or  resolutions,  in  music  or  speech-making,  and  I  insist  that  all  of 
these  things  be  eliminated,  as  things  of  that  kind  will  not  influence  the 
situation  one  way  or  the  other. 

Doing  good  gives  us  more  pleasure  than  anything  else  that  we 
can  do,  and  all  the  suggestions  I  have  made  have  been  for  the  purpose 
of  doing  good  to  Dayton  and  her  people. 

Now,  I  think  it  is  my  duty  to  go  to  some  other  city  where  the 
public  sentiment  will  be  more  easily  influenced  for  good  and  make  it 
possible  to  accomplish  more  good.  I  have  been  unable  to  get  people 
to  agree  with  me  in  Dayton,  or  exert  sufficient  influence  to  get  the 
people  to  do  what  they  should  do  for  the  interests  of  all  of  her  people. 

It  is  not  possible  here  to  write  the  whole  social  history 
of  Dayton,  and  that  would  have  to  be  done  if  all  the  work 
of  Mr.  Patterson  were  to  be  reviewed.  But  it  is  possible 
to  summarize  some  of  the  more  striking  features  and  of 
these  none  is  more  important  than  his  work  with  children. 
Mr.  Patterson  took  it  that  the  cheapest  way  to  train  a 
man  was  to  start  him  right  as  a  boy.  Therefore  his  larg¬ 
est  concern  always  was  with  the  children.  He  did  not 
much  like  to  have  children  around  him — he  was  a  strange 
man  who  preferred  to  be  impersonal  in  his  actions.  Yet 
the  grounds  of  his  house  at  Far  Hills  were  always  open 
for  children  to  play  about  in  and  on  Sundays  he  always 
had  cakes  and  toys  for  the  youngsters  who  came  in — and 
they  came  by  hundreds.  He  did  not  regard  his  estate 
as  his  private  property — he  looked  on  none  of  his  land  as 
private  property  and  he  never  put  up  a  fence  anywhere. 

He  saw  that  the  children  of  Dayton  had  few  places  in 
which  to  play  and  those  only  of  the  dirtiest.  Neither 


It  was  the  personal  property  of  Mr.  Patterson,  but  he  turned  it  over  to  public  use  in  order  to  provide  country  club  advantages  for 

those  who  could  not  afford  the  usual  high  fees.  The  annual  membership  fee  is  one  dollar. 


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MR.  PATTERSON’S  DAILY  LIST  OF  THINGS  TO  DO 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  327 


they  nor  their  parents  knew  anything  of  beauty — of 
flowers,  or  home  furnishings,  or  pictures.  And  there 
was  no  way  that  they  could  know.  The  boys  were  no 
worse  than  any  other  boys  similarly  brought  up;  they 
were  savages  and  of  course  their  energy  was  destructive. 
They  thought  that  uprooting  a  shrub,  cutting  into  a 
tree,  or  hurling  a  stone  through  a  window  were  demon¬ 
strations  of  masculine  individuality.  A  hero  was  a  boy 
who  hit  the  window  he  aimed  at.  Mr.  Patterson  thought 
he  could  find  better  amusement  for  them — and  he  did. 
Characteristically,  he  excused  himself: 

“We  did  it  all  from  necessity.  I  want  to  impress  on 
you  that  we  did  nothing  here  that  we  were  not  compelled 
to  do.  Every  bit  of  our  welfare  work  was  done  from 
necessity.  It  was  all  necessary  in  order  to  carry  out 
what  we  proposed  to  do  with  the  factory.  We  got  the 
boys  from  around  the  neighbourhood  and  gave  them 
something  to  do.” 

He  had  Saturday  morning  entertainments  for  children 
in  the  N.  C.  R.  Schoolhouse,  at  which  they  were  shown 
stereopticon  slides  or  motion  pictures,  they  heard  good 
music,  and  they  finished  up  each  meeting  with  fruit  and 
cake.  But  this  was  only  to  get  the  children  together;  Mr. 
Patterson  had  larger  aims.  He  wanted  to  teach  them 
how  to  play  constructively  and  at  the  same  time  not 
only  to  learn  the  reasons  for  modern  business,  but  also 
to  bring  about  changes  in  their  own  neighbourhoods. 
Out  of  these  thoughts  sprang  the  “Boys’  Garden  Com¬ 
pany”  and  the  “Boys’  Box  Furniture  Company.”  Take 
a  contemporary  report  on  the  garden  work: 

First  the  indoor  egg-shell  garden  was  introduced  to  interest  the 
child  and  instruct  him  in  the  principles  of  cultivation  of  the  soil. 


328 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


Then  Mr.  Patterson  established  for  both  boys  and  girls  a  system  of 
gardening  on  a  large  plot  of  ground,  each  child  being  apportioned  a 
section.  The  interest  shown  by  the  children,  the  recreation  that 
they  evidently  found  in  this  work,  the  change  for  good  in  the  charac¬ 
ter  of  the  neighbourhood  which  it  effected,  and  the  opportunity  for 
instruction  in  business  methods  which  the  disposal  of  the  harvest  each 
year  afforded  to  the  cooperative  company  of  boy  gardeners  led  Mr. 
Patterson  to  hope  that  all  the  children  of  the  city  might  be  given  the 
benefits  of  the  cultivation  of  a  small  garden. 

He  induced  the  Playgrounds’  Association  of  Dayton  to  enlarge 
the  scope  of  its  work  and  under  the  name  of  the  Dayton  Playgrounds’ 
and  Gardens’  Association  to  assume  the  task  of  making  the  local 
endeavour  at  the  National  Cash  Register  plant  a  city- wide  move¬ 
ment.  Needless  to  say,  Mr.  Patterson  assumed  a  large  share  of  the 
expense  of  this  department  of  the  Association’s  work.  With  the 
help  of  the  schools  the  children’s  interest  in  gardening  was  aroused, 
and  talks  by  the  teachers  and  circulars  published  by  the  Association 
gave  instruction  and  direction.  A  city-wide  contest  for  the  best 
gardens  was  announced  and  so  a  great  many  children  were  induced 
to  give  their  names  as  prospective  gardeners.  Seeds  were  given  free 
to  the  children  the  first  year.  They  were  also  presented  with  a  dia¬ 
gram  showing  how  a  plot  of  ground,  10  ft.  by  20  ft.  in  the  backyard, 
should  be  laid  out,  and  directions  for  hoeing,  furrowing,  and  sowing 
were  appended.  About  fifteen  hundred  children  entered  this  con¬ 
test  the  first  year,  though  only  three  hundred  continued  to  the  end  of 
the  season. 

As  a  further  means  of  directing  the  activities  of  the  children  in  the 
backyard  gardens,  there  was  established  in  each  school  district  a 
Model  School  Garden  on  vacant  lots  near  the  schools  and  loaned  bv 
the  owners.  These  model  gardens  were  cultivated  by  a  number  of 
picked  pupils  of  each  school  under  the  direct  supervision  of  a  trained 
gardener.  This  gardener  had  a  schedule  of  visits  at  certain  hours  to 
each  of  these  gardens,  so  that,  if  any  child  working  in  a  backyard 
garden  had  any  difficulty,  he  had  only  to  go  to  the  model  garden  of 
his  district  at  the  hour  of  the  gardener's  visit  to  get  direction  and  sug¬ 
gestion.  Since  the  second  year  of  the  Association’s  activity  in 
gardening,  inspectors  have  been  employed  who  visit  each  backyard 
garden  and  each  model  garden  at  least  once  a  week  and  assign  marks 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  329 


and  keep  reports  not  only  for  the  neatness  and  cultivation  of  the 
garden  but  also  for  the  general  appearance  of  the  surroundings.  It 
is  estimated  that  in  the  season  just  finished  the  children  raised  pro¬ 
duce  in  backyard  and  model  gardens  to  the  value  of  $8,700. 

Then  the  Playgrounds’  and  Gardens’  Association  began  a  cam¬ 
paign  for  the  cultivation  also  of  vacant  lots.  This  not  only  removed 
the  unsightly  places  which  had  been  overgrown  by  weeds,  but  also 
gave  many  a  poor  family  a  chance  to  grow  its  own  vegetables  and  lay 
away  potatoes  and  put  up  preserves  for  the  winter.  Permission  was 
obtained  from  the  owners  of  the  vacant  lots  to  have  them  cultivated 
each  spring  and  then  the  Association  connected  those  who  registered 
for  a  lot  with  one  offered  for  that  purpose  in  the  neighbourhood.  The 
city  authorities  paid  for  the  ploughing  of  six  hundred  lots  and  the 
society  for  all  those  above  that  number.  The  average  cost  of  plough¬ 
ing  last  year  was  one  dollar  a  lot,  this  year  somewhat  over  a  dollar. 
Last  summer  965  vacant  lots  were  cultivated  and  the  estimated 
amount  raised  was  worth  over  $20,000. 

At  the  Montgomery  County  Fair  exhibits  of  the  various  vege¬ 
tables  raised  by  the  children  in  backyard  and  model  gardens  have  been 
shown  and  prizes  offered  by  the  County  Fair  Board  for  the  best 
exhibits.  The  Association  itself  offers  blue,  red,  and  yellow  ribbons 
for  the  children  who  are  shown  by  the  inspectors’  report  and  marking 
to  be  worthy  of  first,  second,  or  third  class.  The  city  government 
has  set  aside  special  market  stalls  where  the  children  gardeners  can, 
free  of  charge,  dispose  of  their  produce. 

In  five  years  of  work  in  the  line  of  children’s  and  adults’  gardens 
the  Association  has  developed  the  interest  in  gardening  to  the  extent 
that  last  year  1,700  children  cultivated  backyard  gardens,  800  chil¬ 
dren  worked  in  model  gardens,  and  965  familes  farmed  965  vacant 
lot  gardens.  The  community  at  large  has  become  interested,  too, 
and  the  Greater  Dayton  Association,  which  is  Dayton’s  commercial, 
civic,  and  welfare  organization  combined,  arranged  periodic  visits  of 
inspection  to  these  gardens  in  which  many  prominent  men  and  women 
took  part. 

It  has  been  said  that  Dayton’s  backyards  are  prettier  and  neater 
than  most  cities’  front  lawns.  It  is  recognized  that  the  unsightly 
spots  of  our  city  have  been  greatly  reduced  in  number  through  the 
gardening  movement.  Gardening  has  become  one  of  the  appreciated 


330 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


forms  of  recreation  to  Dayton’s  children  and  adults.  And  all  this 
has  been  accomplished  through  the  vision  of  John  H.  Patterson. 

The  Boys’  Garden  Company  working  on  the  land  of 
the  company  was  a  real  corporation.  Mr.  Patterson 
planned  its  organization  in  his  usual  pyramid  style  under 
five  headings — he  instantly  set  out  to  gain  the  com¬ 
mercial  interest  of  the  boys.  This  is  the  organization  as 
he  developed  it: 

History:  The  N.  C.  It.  Company  realizing  that  the  boys  of  the 
community  must  have  something  to  do  to  keep  them  out  of  mischief, 
secured  Mrs.  Harvey,  a  settlement  worker.  A  community  house  was 
opened  and  classes  in  wood  carving,  clay  modelling,  and  drawing  were 
opened  for  the  boys.  This  proved  so  interesting  that  the  egg-shell 
garden  movement  was  started.  The  boys  took  so  much  interest  in 
this  that  in  the  year  1897  a  plot  of  ground  near  the  factory  was  cleared 
and  used  as  a  garden  plot.  Here  the  ringleaders  of  the  boys  were  put 
in  charge  and  the  boys  received  their  first  lesson  in  garden  work. 

Organization:  Stock  company  incorporated  under  the  laws  of 
the  State  of  Ohio,  August  10,  1910.  Stockholders  and  board  of  direc¬ 
tors’  meeting  third  Thursday  of  each  month.  $50  capital  stock, 
$40  paid  up  stock.  Eighty  stockholders  at  fifty  cents  per  share. 
$100  in  cash  prizes  distributed  each  year.  Working  hours:  6:30  to 
7:30  a.  m.,  4:00  to  5:15  p.  m.  Boys  of  the  age  of  10  to  12  years  can 
be  members.  An  instructor  is  in  charge  to  help  the  boys  and  to  see 
that  the  work  is  properly  carried  on. 

Purpose:  To  keep  the  boys  out  of  mischief  and  to  give  them  out¬ 
door  exercise,  build  up  the  body,  making  them  healthy  boys.  To 
learn  the  value  of  work.  To  learn  the  value  of  cooperation.  To  be 
able  to  plant  seeds  right.  To  get  a  knowledge  of  vegetables,  seeds, 
care  of  ground,  and  best  season  in  which  to  plant  same.  To  furnish 
food  for  the  table.  To  take  care  of  tools.  To  plant  the  rows  from 
north  to  south.  To  take  care  of  the  little  things.  To  teach  a  boy 
to  be  industrious  and  exact  in  the  cultivation  of  a  garden. 

Material:  Ground:  Plot  12  x  53  feet  to  each  boy;  each  plot  is 
numbered.  Tools:  Hoe,  rake,  wheelbarrow,  cultivator,  spade, 
planting  stick,  pint  cups  for  seeds.  Each  tool  is  numbered  the  same 


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A  CHART  OF  “THINGS  TO  DO” 

“When  something  was  finished,  Mr.  Patterson  crossed  it  off  his  chart  and  went 
on  with  the  next  thing.  And  when  he  died  his  chart  was  fuller  of  things  to  do  than 
at  any  time  before  in  his  life.” 


FREDERICK  B.  PATTERSON 

A  year  before  John  H.  Patterson’s  death  in  May,  1922,  he  retired  from  the 
presidency  of  the  N.  C.  R.  Co.  and  became  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  his 
son  Frederick  taking  his  place  as  president 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  331 


as  the  garden  plot ;  this  makes  it  easy  to  keep  tab  on  each  boy.  Seeds 
and  plants:  Beans,  beets,  cabbage,  carrots,  cauliflower,  celery,  lettuce 
leaf,  eggplants,  endive,  kale,  kohlrabi,  lima  beans,  mangoes,  onions, 
parsnips,  peas,  radishes,  spinach,  tomatoes,  turnips,  celeriac,  salsify, 
potatoes,  head  lettuce.  Books:  To  keep  account  of  the  vegetables 
raised  and  sold.  Hotbeds :  Plants  are  started. 

Results:  The  boys  learn:  Value  of  a  dollar.  To  work.  To  be 
precise.  To  overcome  difficulties.  To  cooperate.  To  be  generous, 
kind,  obedient,  and  truthful.  Over  $2,000  worth  of  vegetables 
raised  in  1918.  Home  tables  supplied  with  vegetables,  remainder  are 
sold,  money  is  banked  and  cash  dividends  are  declared  each  year. 
By  rotation,  three  crops  can  be  raised  in  one  year.  Better  class  of 
boys  for  the  uplift  of  the  community.  Gives  the  boy  a  good  training 
in  selling  and  the  care  of  vegetables  and  flowers.  A  diploma  given 
to  each  boy  at  the  end  of  a  successful  two-years’  course.  This  is  a 
good  recommendation  for  a  position  at  the  factory  in  the  future. 

Following  the  Garden  Company  came  the  Box  Furni¬ 
ture  Company  to  provide  work  and  amusement  in  the 
winter  months.  This,  too,  had  its  pyramid  which  fully 
explains  its  operation: 

Organization:  Incorporated  under  the  laws  of  Ohio.  Board  of 
directors  hold  monthly  meetings.  Factory  and  salesroom,  L.  Street 
near  Brown.  Average  number  of  boys  at  work,  21.  Boys  must 
complete  two  seasons  in  the  Boys’  Garden  Company  before  entering 
the  Box  Furniture  Factory.  Age  of  boys,  11  to  15  years.  Dividends 
are  distributed  according  to  the  number  of  hours  at  work.  Each  boy 
receives  from  $4.00  to  $10.00  in  an  annual  dividend.  Under  the 
supervision  of  the  Welfare  Department.  Cash  dividends  for  the 
year  ending  December  31,  1917,  $205.33. 

Object:  Teaches  the  boys:  To  use  carpenter’s  tools.  To  build 
useful  furniture.  To  make  repairs  about  the  house.  To  be  accurate 
with  the  eye  and  the  hand.  To  be  thorough.  The  value  of  work. 

Instruction:  All  the  work  is  done  under  the  supervision  of  an 
instructor.  Hours  for  work:  4  p.  m.  to  6  p.  m.  Saturdays,  8  a.  m.  to 
10  a.  m.  Summer  vacations,  3  p.  m.  to  5  p.  m.  Boys  are  taught  the 
use  and  care  of:  Saw,  plane,  chisel,  vise,  hammer,  mitre  box,  compass. 


332 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


brace,  bit,  drill,  and  square.  Teaches  the  boys  to:  Lay  out  work; 
prepare  material;  cut,  plane,  and  join;  smooth  and  finish;  stain; 
varnish;  and  enamel. 

Materials:  Poplar  and  yellow  pine  are  obtained  from  the  boxes 
and  packing  cases  discarded  at  the  N.  C.  R.  factory.  Rough  lumber 
is  shaped  by  a  band  saw  used  by  the  instructor.  Hardware:  Nails, 
screws,  brass,  iron,  hinges,  knobs,  and  other  fittings.  Paints:  stains, 
shellac,  varnish,  and  various  coloured  paints. 

Product:  The  furniture  is  sold  through  catalogues,  samples,  and 
salesroom,  by  the  boys  and  the  instructor.  Furniture  regularly  made : 
Bookcases,  tabourettes,  pedestals,  sewing  stands,  children’s  furniture, 
medicine  cabinets,  wastebaskets,  footstools,  shoe  blacking  stands, 
flower  boxes,  and  bird  houses.  Special  orders  are  received  for, 
clothes  chests,  telephone  stands,  desks,  trellises,  and  similar  articles  of 
furniture.  Finishes:  standard  (dull  dark  brown  stain),  white  enamel, 
mahogany,  gloss,  and  green. 

In  a  memorial  sermon  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  D.  F. 
Garland,  the  Director  of  Welfare  of  the  N.  C.  R.  in  1923, 
on  the  anniversary  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  death,  he  sum¬ 
marized  what  Mr.  Patterson  did  for  the  children  of 
Dayton  and  of  the  country  at  large,  and  it  is  well  worth 
quoting,  for  in  the  broad  view  one  can  place  the  work  with 
the  children  as  an  achievement  even  larger  than  the 
building  of  the  N.  C.  R.  itself.  Said  Doctor  Garland: 

“Mr.  Patterson  understood  human  nature.  He  real¬ 
ized  that  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree  inclines;  that  you 
could  do  little  with  the  adult  portion  of  the  community  in 
changing  its  fixed  ideals  and  habits  of  life.  Therefore, 
he  took  the  long  look  ahead,  and  centred  his  influence, 
his  leadership,  and  his  marvellous  teaching  ability  upon 
the  children  of  his  time.  He  had  learned  the  lesson  so 
ably  taught  by  the  Galilean  Master,  who  one  day  set  a 
child  in  the  midst  of  a  great  company  and  said,  ‘  Of  such 
is  the  Kingdom  of  God.’  ‘And  whosoever  shall  offend 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  333 


one  of  these  little  ones  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  mill¬ 
stone  were  hanged  about  his  neck  and  he  were  drowned 
in  the  depth  of  the  sea.’  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no 
man  who  has  ever  lived  in  our  community  contributed  as 
much  to  the  present  and  future  well-being  of  children  as 
John  H.  Patterson.  The  time  will  not  permit  me  to  re¬ 
count  all  that  he  did,  but  I  wish  briefly  to  state  some  of 
the  outstanding  services  which  he  rendered  to  the  children : 

“  1.  He  established  the  first  boys’  garden  in  the  world, 
where  boys  were  taught  the  value  of  work,  the  value  of 
money,  the  sources  of  wealth,  and  the  principles  which  de¬ 
velop  character. 

44  2.  It  was  at  his  suggestion  and  under  his  direction 
and  with  his  financial  aid  that  the  Patterson  School  es¬ 
tablished  the  first  school  garden  of  America.  To-day 
there  are  thousands  and  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  children  planting  seed  and  cultivating  the  soil  in 
these  United  States.  He  did  this  when  no  one  else 
thought  of  it,  and  in  the  face  of  criticism  and  ridicule. 

4 4  3.  It  was  at  his  suggestion  and  with  the  use  of  money 
secured  through  the  Welfare  Department  of  the  National 
Cash  Register  Company  that  the  first  cooking  centre  in 
any  public  school  in  Dayton  was  equipped  in  the  Patter¬ 
son  School.  Mr.  Patterson  financed  this  school  himself. 
This  experiment  resulted  in  the  introduction  of  domestic 
science  into  one  school  after  another  in  Dayton  until  now 
all  the  children  of  our  schools  have  an  opportunity  to 
learn  the  principles  of  domestic  science. 

44  4.  The  children’s  friend  was  also  fairy  godfather  to 
the  little  group  of  children  years  ago  who  were  trained  by 
Mr.  Yahreis  in  orchestral  music.  We  have  to-day  on  our 
stage  a  few  of  the  children’s  orchestras.  This  is  a  result 
of  his  far-sighted  thoughtfulness  and  generosity. 


334 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


“5.  Mr.  Patterson  was  also  responsible  for  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  the  first  public  school  kindergarten  in  Dayton 
through  the  gift  of  a  complete  kindergarten  equipment. 
From  this  others  sprang  up  until  now  every  school  has  its 
kindergarten. 

“6.  Mr.  Patterson  planned  and  financed  the  first 
playground  and  garden  association  in  Dayton.  It  was 
through  him  that  this  splendid  service  which  the  children 
of  Dayton  now  enjoy  was  established  nearly  a  quarter  of 
a  century  ago. 

“7.  Time  will  not  permit  me  to  tell  the  story  of  how 
Mr.  Patterson  thought  and  planned  and  organized  and 
battled,  at  great  odds,  against  opposition,  to  secure  better 
city  government,  better  public  health  protection,  and  a 
better  system  of  education  for  Dayton  in  the  interests  of 
growing  childhood.  He  realized  that  the  children  would 
have  no  chance  in  the  future  if  the  Government  was  cor¬ 
rupt,  if  the  educational  system  was  inadequate,  if  pro¬ 
tection  against  disease  was  not  given. 

“8.  The  first  community  centre  for  adults  and  chil¬ 
dren  he  established  near  the  factory,  and  from  this  has 
come  more  than  a  score  of  community  centres  and  im¬ 
provement  associations  in  Dayton.” 

The  number  of  clubs  which  Mr.  Patterson  organized 
is  endless.  First  he  had  them  all  through  the  factory  and 
then  he  had  them  all  through  Dayton. 

The  Woman’s  Century  Club  of  the  National  Cash  Regis¬ 
ter  Company  was  organized  in  April,  1896,  as  the  result 
of  a  suggestion  made  by  Mr.  Patterson.  At  that  time, 
Miss  Amy  Acton,  a  lawyer  (it  is  said  that  she  is  the  first 
woman  lawyer  ever  employed  by  a  large  corporation), 
was  in  the  employ  of  the  company  and  through  her 
leadership  a  permanent  organization  was  effected.  Self- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  335 


improvement  and  service  were  the  principles  upon  which 
the  organization  was  based.  The  motto  of  the  club  is 
“Onward,  Upward.”  It  is  now  one  of  the  foremost  or¬ 
ganizations  of  its  kind  in  Dayton.  It  is  the  first  woman’s 
club  ever  organized  in  a  factory  of  factory  women.  It 
affiliated  in  1897  with  the  State  Federation  of  Women’s 
Clubs  and  with  the  General  Federation  of  Women’s  Clubs. 
It  has  a  membership  which  varies  from  six  to  eight  hun¬ 
dred,  depending  upon  the  number  of  women  employees 
in  the  industry.  The  club  meets  regularly  on  the  second 
and  fourth  Wednesdays  of  each  month  from  October  to 
June,  inclusive.  Meetings  are  held  in  the  Schoolhouse 
beginning  at  12:45  and  lasting  until  1:30.  The  members 
give  fifteen  minutes  of  their  noon  hour  and  the  com¬ 
pany  grants  thirty  minutes  of  company  time.  The  mem¬ 
bers  pay  annual  dues  at  the  rate  of  five  cents  per  month. 

The  first  neighbourhood  club  established  by  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson  was  the  Rubicon  Club,  opposite  the  old  Patterson 
homestead.  As  an  outgrowth  of  this  club,  fifteen  or  more 
similar  clubs  were  instituted  throughout  the  city.  A 
mothers’  club  movement  which  spread  all  over  Dayton 
had  its  inception  in  the  N.  C.  R.  House  of  Usefulness. 
Mr.  Patterson  believed  that  clubs  promoted  social  and 
business  intercourse,  understanding,  and  cooperation.  He 
inspired  the  organization  of  the  Dayton  Woman’s  Club 
and  largely  financed  the  purchase  of  its  fine  clubhouse. 
In  the  factory  he  organized  the  Advance  and  Progress 
Club  for  executives,  in  addition  to  the  Woman’s  Cen¬ 
tury  Club  for  women  employees,  and  the  N.  C.  R.  Wom¬ 
en’s  Club  for  the  women  of  N.  C.  R.  employees’  families. 

The  Old  Barn  Club  was  the  personal  property  of  Mr. 
Patterson,  but  he  turned  it  over  to  public  use  in  order 
to  provide  country  club  advantages  for  those  who  could 


336 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


not  afford  the  usual  high  dues.  The  annual  member¬ 
ship  fees  are  one  dollar.  This  clubhouse  is  beautifully 
located  and  gives  to  its  members  all  the  benefits  of  a 
thoroughly  modern  country  club. 

Concerning  the  Old  Barn  Club  he  formed  a  character¬ 
istic  pyramid  showing  how  his  mind  worked  on  these 
matters : 

History:  The  property  of  which  the  clubhouse  site  is  now  a  part 
was  originally  acquired  from  the  United  States  Government  by 
Joseph  Coleman,  in  1815.  Ten  years  later  he  sold  the  largest  part  of 
his  holdings  to  Adam  Coblenz.  The  property  passed  entirely  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  Coblenz  heirs  in  1886.  In  1906  it  was  acquired  by 
John  H.  Patterson.  The  farmhouse  at  that  time  was  a  plain  brown 
frame  with  a  porch  both  to  the  north  and  south.  On  the  slope  of  the 
hill,  to  the  west,  and  quite  a  little  distance  lower,  stood  the  old  “bank 
barn,”  probably  nearly  a  hundred  years  old.  The  barn  was  removed 
intact  and  joined  to  the  farmhouse  on  the  west.  Timbers  were 
hewn  from  walnut  logs,  as  now  shown  in  the  clubroom.  The  first 
floor  of  the  barn  was  cleared  of  partitions  and  now  forms  the  main 
floor  of  the  clubhouse.  The  overhanging  section  of  the  barn  was  then 
enclosed  to  form  a  basement.  Here  are  now  located  the  Commissary 
Department  and  dining  rooms.  After  the  remodelling  had  been 
completed,  the  clubhouse  became  the  home  of  the  Dayton  Automo¬ 
bile  Club.  In  1913  it  was  turned  into  the  N.  C.  It.  Girls*  Club.  In 
the  spring  of  1915  it  was  decided  to  reorganize  the  club  into  a  com¬ 
munity  centre,  and  was  known  as  the  Hills  and  Dales  Club  until  the 
spring  of  1919,  since  then  as  the  Old  Barn  Club. 

Object:  To  supply  a  country  club  that  everyone  can  afford  to 
join.  To  promote  friendship  and  unity  among  the  people  of  Dayton. 
To  bring  Dayton  and  surrounding  towns  and  cities  into  closer  re¬ 
lationship.  To  get  people  out  into  the  open  air  and  sunshine.  To 
provide  a  meeting  place  for  all  the  people. 

Organization:  Managed  by  a  board  of  governors.  Board  members 
elected  annually.  Meetings  subject  to  call.  Activities  planned  by 
Entertainment  Committee.  Membership:  $1  for  all  persons  over 
sixteen  years  of  age. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  337 


Activities:  Open  to  everyone  living  in  the  Miami  Valley.  Dancing 
every  Saturday  night.  Assembly  hall  rented  to  members  for  special 
dances.  Dining  rooms — Three  meals  served  each  day.  Dinner 
dances.  Tennis.  Croquet.  Club  meeting  place.  Parties.  Picnics. 
Musicals.  Sunday  afternoon  concerts  at  amphitheatre.  Dormi¬ 
tory  for  women.  Special  entertainments  free  to  members.  Current- 
event  talks.  Educational  talks.  Moving  pictures.  Open-air  camps. 
Swings.  Rustic  chairs.  Beautiful  shade  trees.  Ten-cent  carfare. 

Results  in  1918:  Total  attendance — 41,757;  total  membership — 
1,210;  meals  served — 19,951;  afternoon  tea  and  refreshments — 
331;  sleeping  accommodations  furnished  to — 3,119;  Hills  and  Dales 
camp  reservations— 78;  number  using — 3,120;  Thursday  afternoon 
programmes — 21;  attendance — 1,365;  Sunday  concerts — 9;  attend¬ 
ance — 3,102;  club  dances — 23;  private  dances — 2;  church  organiza¬ 
tions  entertained — 36;  clubs  from  surrounding  towns — 12;  men’s 
clubs — 22;  women’s  clubs — 39;  all  operating  expenses  paid  out  of  the 
club  funds. 

The  Hills  and  Dales  Park  mentioned  in  the  pyramid 
of  the  Old  Barn  Club  is  another  of  Mr.  Patterson’s  gifts 
to  Dayton.  He  bought  the  ground  originally  because  he 
thought  Dayton  was  building  without  regard  to  the  pro¬ 
vision  of  open  spaces.  He  held  it  as  private  property  but 
open  to  any  one  who  liked,  until  1918  when,  being  satis¬ 
fied  that  the  city  was  competent  to  care  for  it,  he  deeded 
it  to  the  public.  There  is  no  other  park  quite  like  it  any¬ 
where.  In  part  it  is  wild  and  traversed  only  by  paths 
leading  always  to  a  shelter  where  a  dinner  or  luncheon 
may  be  cooked  over  a  wood  fire,  and  in  part  it  is  laid 
out  with  good  motoring  roads  and  playing  fields.  It 
covers  some  325  acres.  Mr.  Patterson’s  own  pyramid 
is  its  best  description: 

History:  Land  used  for  club  was  part  of  a  farm  originally  owned  by 
Joseph  Coleman,  who  obtained  it  from  the  United  States  Govern¬ 
ment  in  1815.  Sold  to  Adam  Coblenz  in  1825.  Transferred  to 


338 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


George  W.  Silzell  in  1886.  Acquired  from  Silzell  heirs  by  John  H. 
Patterson  in  1906.  Girls*  dormitory  converted  from  “bank”  barn. 
Men’s  clubhouse  was  a  field  barn.  Dance  hall  was  an  aeroplane 
hangar.  Original  club  open  only  to  officers,  department  heads, 
supervisors,  foremen,  etc.,  organized  in  1911.  In  1913,  all  employees 
invited  to  become  members.  No  dues.  1914-1916,  governed  by 
committee  of  employees.  1917-1918,  opened  to  the  public  under 
Department  of  Welfare,  City  of  Dayton.  1918,  deeded  to  City  of 
Dayton  294  acres,  by  John  H.  Patterson.  Dedicatory  exercises  held 
June  8  and  9,  1918. 

Purpose:  To  provide  outdoor  recreation,  amid  pleasant  surround¬ 
ings,  for  all  citizens  of  Dayton.  To  provide  a  social  centre  where 
all  may  meet  on  a  democratic  basis.  To  develop  good  feeling  among 
the  citizens  of  Dayton.  To  foster  the  spirit  of  cooperation.  To 
provide  a  place  where  citizens  of  Dayton  may  meet  in  a  social  way. 
Open  season  from  May  1  to  October  1,  or  until  snow  stops  outdoor 
activities. 

Organization:  Managed  by  a  governing  board  composed  of  rep¬ 
resentatives  of  the  citizens  of  Dayton.  Board  members  are  elected 
annually.  Meetings  are  held  monthly  during  the  season.  Pro¬ 
grammes,  activities,  etc.,  are  planned  by  the  governing  board.  Club 
manager,  employed  by,  and  administers  affairs  under  direction  of,  the 
Department  of  Welfare,  City  of  Dayton.  Fifteen  employees.  Dues 
— General  membership  including  golf,  tennis,  locker,  Men  $12.00. 
General  membership  including  golf,  tennis,  locker,  Women  $6.00. 

Activities:  Outdoor  recreation — Three  baseball  diamonds;  ten 
tennis  courts;  eighteen-hole  golf  course;  volley  ball;  polo;  basket 
ball;  quoits;  children’s  playground;  wading  pool;  and  sand  piles. 
Athletic  contests.  Organized  play  for  children.  Band  concerts. 
Dancing.  Men’s  and  women’s  clubhouses — 55  beds  for  men;  24  for 
women;  25  cents  a  night.  Reading  rooms.  Pool  and  billiard 
tables.  Showers,  lockers,  and  dressing  rooms.  Refreshments — 
Cafeteria  lunches  served  Saturdays,  Sundays,  holidays,  and  special 
days.  Ice  cream,  milk,  soft  drinks,  and  candies  sold  every  day. 
Special  programmes  scheduled  for  Saturdays  and  holidays. 

Results  in  1918:  Total  Attendance — 153,000;  Sunday-school 
picnics,  number — 16;  attendance — 6,900.  Catholic  Federation  So¬ 
cials,  number — 12;  attendance  9,000;  picnics  by  schools — 3;  employees 


A  CONVENTION  OF  SALESMEN’S  WIVES 

In  order  to  show  them  how  to  aid  their  husbands  in  making  more  money — an  idea  developed  by 

Mr.  Patterson  during  a  period  of  business  depression 


t 


r 


MR.  PATTERSON  AT  HIS  DESK  AT  THE  AGE  OF  75 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  339 


— 11;  lodges — 7;  societies — 12;  military— 6;  number — 29,  attendance 
23,400.  Playground  picnic — number  1,  attendance  1,000.  Vacant  lot 
and  backyard  garden  picnic — number  1,  attendance,  2,500.  Camps 
— number  of  parties  750;  attendance  12,400.  Dances — private  11; 
Tuesday  night  12;  Wednesday  night  6;  Thursday  night  12;  Saturday 
night  19.  All  operating  expenses  paid  out  of  City  of  Dayton  general 
fund.  These  results  show  that  a  club  along  the  lines  of  this  one 
should  be  owned  and  operated  by  every  city  with  good  government. 

It  was  Mr.  Patterson’s  habit,  whenever  a  good  idea  was 
suggested  to  him,  to  have  an  investigation  started  at  once. 
No  one  knows  the  number  of  men  and  women  he  has  sent 
to  various  parts  of  the  world  to  report  on  some  social- 
betterment  plan  that  had  been  brought  to  his  attention. 
He  had  competent  people  examine  every  phase  of  social 
work  in  Europe;  no  city  in  the  United  States  made  any 
large  improvement  in  social  work  or  in  education  without 
Mr.  Patterson  sending  a  representative.  He  hired  ex¬ 
perts  in  landscape  gardening,  in  interior  decoration — in 
everything;  and  he  gave  the  results  of  their  work  freely 
to  the  community.  Often  he  met  with  opposition  be¬ 
cause,  once  he  had  determined  that  some  plan  was  good, 
he  immediately  went  ahead  to  force  its  general  adoption — 
regardless  of  the  individuals  concerned.  That  was  his  way 
— it  was  the  way  that  he  had  with  himself.  If  he  were  told 
that  this  or  that  was  good  for  him  he  did  what  he  was 
told,  regardless  of  his  personal  tastes.  In  the  course  of 
time  his  attitude  began  to  be  recognized  and  respected. 

I  have  not  given  his  activities  in  anything  like  their 
entirety  or  at  all  in  their  chronological  sequence.  And 
also  it  is  not  possible  to  trace  any  of  his  various  activities 
from  their  beginnings  to  their  ends.  For  instance,  he 
was  the  leader  in  establishing  and  supporting  the  “com¬ 
munity  chest”  designed  to  regularize  and  take  the  graft 


340 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


out  of  philanthropy.  He  also  with  his  sister-in-law,  Mrs. 
Carnell,  and  his  nephew,  Robert  Patterson,  established 
“The  Dayton  Foundation,”  providing  a  fund  of  a  quarter 
of  a  million  dollars,  the  income  of  which  should  be  used  to 
promote  the  benefit  of  the  people  of  Dayton  and  the  vi¬ 
cinity  for  all  time  to  come.  The  Foundation  is  laid  on 
the  broadest  possible  lines,  allowing  for  services  of  any 
sort  which  in  the  unfolding  years  may  seem  advisable  and 
providing  opportunity  for  contributions  of  the  most  mod¬ 
est  size  or  in  sums  of  millions.  The  beginning  of  this 
great  fund  was  a  letter  written  by  Doctor  Garland  to  a 
number  of  prominent  citizens.  Doctor  Garland  wanted 
to  raise  one  hundred  dollars  to  buy  some  pamphlets  and 
to  pay  postage  on  letters  to  the  end  of  establishing  a  com¬ 
munity  service.  He  sent  out  ten  letters  asking  for  ten 
dollars  each.  The  next  morning  he  received  a  check 
for  one  hundred  dollars  from  Mr.  Patterson  and  a  note 
thanking  him  for  bringing  the  matter  to  his  attention. 
Little  by  little  the  work  broadened  until  finally  it  de¬ 
veloped  into  a  great  foundation  devoted  to  public  service. 

But  the  work  in  which  he  probably  took  the  largest 
pride  was  the  establishment  in  Dayton  of  the  City  Mana¬ 
ger  form  of  government,  for  that  represented  not  only 
the  realization  of  a  hope  that  he  expressed  in  his  1896 
address  and  provided  a  business  government  for  the  city, 
but  also  it  represented  a  victory  over  the  bosses  who  had 
for  so  long  harried  him.  In  1912  Mr.  Patterson  sent 
Doctor  Garland  to  Europe  to  study  the  government  of 
cities.  During  the  same  summer  he  sent  Miss  Dilks, 
daughter  of  a  former  vice-president  of  the  company,  to 
New  York  to  examine  into  the  workings  of  the  Civic  Fed¬ 
eration  of  which  Mr.  Patterson  was  a  member.  She  fell 
in  with  the  work  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Municipal 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  341 


Research.  Fifteen  minutes  after  she  had  reported,  Mr. 
Patterson  had  made  a  pyramid  for  a  Dayton  Bureau  of 
Municipal  Research  to  be  headed  by  Doctor  Garland  and 
to  which  Mr.  Patterson  would  subscribe  a  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  a  month — but  his  name  was  to  be  kept  out  of  the 
whole  affair.  This  bureau  gained  the  support  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  and  turned  the  minds  of  the 
more  thoughtful  citizens  toward  the  evils  of  partisan 
government.  An  amendment  to  the  state  constitution 
permitted  the  cities  to  form  their  own  kind  of  govern¬ 
ment  within  certain  limits  and  took  away  the  bossism 
of  the  legislature.  Then  Mr.  Patterson,  at  first  under 
cover  and  then  openly,  began  to  campaign  for  the 
City  Manager  Plan.  He  turned  the  full  sales  and  adver¬ 
tising  force  of  the  N.  C.  R.  into  the  fight  and  sold  the  plan 
to  the  people  the  way  the  cash  register  had  been  sold. 

A  citizens’  committee,  consisting  of  five  persons,  with 
Mr.  Patterson  as  chairman,  was  appointed  by  the  Cham¬ 
ber  of  Commerce  to  initiate  a  new  charter.  After  a 
careful  study  of  various  types  of  municipal  government 
this  committee  of  five  added  fifteen  others  and  later  the 
group  was  extended  to  a  committee  of  one  hundred. 
Then  an  open  meeting  was  held  at  which  the  various 
modern  forms  of  city  government  were  presented  and  ex¬ 
plained.  After  a  number  of  public  meetings,  the  City 
Manager  Plan  was  decided  upon.  A  primary  election, 
conducted  through  the  mails,  by  the  one  hundred  mem¬ 
bers  resulted  in  the  selection  of  fifteen  of  their  number 
to  become  candidates  for  the  Charter  Commission.  These 
fifteen  men  pledged  themselves  unanimously  that  if 
elected  they  would  write  a  charter  embodying  the  Com¬ 
mission  Manager  Plan,  and  would  incorporate  in  it  the 
following  fixed  fundamental  provisions: 


342 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


A  commission  of  five,  elected  at  large,  on  a  non-partisan 
ticket  and  subject  to  recall.  A  city  manager  selected  by 
the  commission,  in  whom  would  repose  all  administrative 
duties  relative  to  the  government  of  the  city.  A  refer¬ 
endum  and  protest  on  all  legislation. 

The  charter  would  insure  the  greatest  welfare  of  the 
citizen  body  and  at  the  same  time  prevent  factions  politi¬ 
cally  or  otherwise  from  conserving  their  own  interests. 
This  act  of  pledging  candidates  to  the  Charter  Commission 
through  a  definite  scheme  of  government  was  a  notable 
contribution  to  charter  planning.  It  meant  that  the 
people  at  the  polls  could  determine  in  their  choice  of  a 
charter  commission  a  definite  programme  for  the  charter 
itself,  and  therefore  made  the  issue  perfectly  clear.  Then 
the  N.  C.  R.  began  to  function  with  posters,  hand  books, 
pictures,  and  diagrams.  They  taught  through  the  eye 
and  they  reached  out  for  everyone.  There  were  no  great 
mass  meetings;  instead,  scores  of  speakers  spoke  inform¬ 
ally  to  little  groups  of  voters  in  churches,  in  factories,  at 
improvement  associations,  in  the  homes  of  citizens,  or  on 
the  corners  of  the  streets. 

The  fifteen  men  were  elected  at  the  polls  by  a  vote  of 
two  to  one  against  the  combined  opposition  of  two  other 
sets  of  candidates  both  of  which  represented  partisan 
politics.  The  charter  was  then  carefully  written  without 
the  waste  of  a  moment  of  time,  and  without  the  disturb¬ 
ance  of  internal  bickerings,  because  the  question  of  a  type 
of  charter  had  already  been  determined  at  the  polls. 
Following  the  writing  of  the  charter,  it  was  adopted  by  an 
overwhelming  majority  in  August,  1913,  and  at  the 
November  election  five  commissioners  were  chosen  whose 
term  of  service  began  January  1,  1914. 

By  this  plan  the  legislative  power  is  vested  in  a  non- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  343 


partisan  commission  of  five  men  elected  at  large  by  the 
people.  This  is  a  purely  legislative  body.  Its  duties 
cover  all  legislative  functions  of  city  government.  It 
passes  all  annual  appropriation  ordinances;  it  enacts  all 
police  and  public  improvement  regulations ;  it  has  author¬ 
ity  to  investigate  the  operations  of  any  department  of  city 
government;  it  chooses  and  appoints  the  city  manager. 
He  is  directly  responsible  to  the  commission  for  the  entire 
administrative  work  of  city  government  and  it  can  dis¬ 
miss  him  at  will.  The  members  of  the  Commission  give 
only  a  portion  of  their  time  to  city  government,  being  re¬ 
quired  under  the  charter  to  meet  not  less  than  once  each 
week.  The  salary  fixed  is  $1,200  per  year  with  the  excep¬ 
tion  of  the  mayor  who  receives  $1 ,800  per  year.  The  com¬ 
missioners  act  as  a  Board  of  Sinking  Fund  Trustees.  They 
have  power  to  create  additional  administrative  depart¬ 
ments  to  those  provided  under  the  charter  and  they  may 
discontinue  any  department  already  created  under  the 
charter,  or  they  may  distribute  the  functions  of  any  de¬ 
partment  at  will. 

The  City  Manager  represents  the  Commission,  and  is  the 
responsible  executive  head  of  the  administrative  depart¬ 
ment  of  city  government.  The  entire  administrative 
functions  of  city  government  are  concentrated  in  him. 
He  may  be  chosen  from  the  citizens  of  Dayton,  or  from 
any  part  of  the  United  States.  He  appoints  his  immedi¬ 
ate  subordinates  and  all  other  administrative  officials  un¬ 
der  him.  He  is  directly  and  personally  responsible  to  the 
Commission,  and  through  the  Commission  to  the  people 
for  the  entire  administration  of  the  city.  He  selects  the 
heads  of  the  five  principal  departments  from  citizens  of  Day- 
ton  or  from  outside  the  city.  He  may  dismiss  them  at  will. 

Realizing  that  inefficient  government  is  more  often  due 


344 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


to  the  weakness  of  the  method  than  to  the  weakness  and 
dishonesty  of  public  officers,  the  charter  provides  budget¬ 
ary  and  accounting  procedure  in  a  fundamental  law  usually 
absent  from  city  charters.  The  appropriation  estimates 
are  required  to  be  carefully  compiled  by  the  City  Manager 
from  detailed  information  obtained  from  the  several  de¬ 
partments  on  uniform  blanks.  The  entire  expenses  of  the 
city  are  required  to  be  most  rigidly  and  carefully  classified 
as  nearly  uniform  as  possible.  Provision  is  made  for  the 
publication  of  the  budget  and  a  public  hearing  on  budget 
estimates  in  advance  of  its  approval  and  enactment  into 
laws.  The  charter  further  provides  that  appropriations 
may  never  exceed  the  estimated  income. 

Mr.  Patterson  died  twenty-six  years  after  that  address 
on  How  To  Make  Dayton  a  Model  City — twenty-six  years 
after  his  wild  dream.  What  happened  in  the  meantime? 
Here  in  parallel  columns  are  what  he  asked  to  have  done 
and  what  has  been  done: 


The  Plan  The  Fulfilment 

I.  In  Education 


1 .  Send  delegations  of  teachers  to 
model  schools  and  conventions. 

2.  Provide  large  number  of  kin¬ 
dergartens. 

3.  Establish  industrial  training 
schools  to  cover  every  phase 
of  industrial  operation. 

4.  Establish  manual  training 
schools. 

5.  Teach  Domestic  Science  in 
schools. 

6.  Provide  evening  sessions  of 
schools. 


Being  done. 

Established  for  entire  city. 

A  splendid  beginning  made  at 
Stivers  High  School. 

Being  done. 

Being  done. 

This  is  done  for  adults. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  345 


The  Plan 

7.  Found  scholarships  for  study 
and  travel. 

8.  Teach  scientific  farming. 

9.  Teach  landscape  gardening. 

10.  Sale  of  school  books  at  cost 
through  state  agent. 

11.  Provide  evening  instruction 
for  employees  of  all  stores. 

12.  Establish  a  system  of  libra¬ 
ries  throughout  the  city. 

13.  Bulletin  daily  current  events. 


The  Fulfilment 

Nothing. 

Nothing. 

Nothing. 

Nothing. 

Being  done  in  part. 

Branches  have  been  estab¬ 
lished. 

Being  done  in  another  way. 


II.  In  Industry  and  Trade 


1.  The  working  day  will  be 
shortened. 

2.  Better-trained  workmen  will 
be  developed. 

3.  Saturday  half  holidays  will 
be  given  to  all  labourers. 

4.  Secure  more  skilled  artisans, 
and  thus  insure  many  new 
industries. 

5.  Employers  and  employees  will 
come  in  closer  touch  and  will 
cooperate  for  mutual  benefit. 

6.  Women  will  quit  work  a  half 
hour  before  the  men. 


Has  been  done. 

This  is  in  process  of  accom¬ 
plishment. 

This  is  general. 

This  is  being  realized. 

This  cooperation  is  being  se¬ 
cured. 

Done. 


III.  In  Government 

1.  The  city  will  be  viewed  as  a  This  result  is  attained, 
great  business  enterprise,  the 

people  being  the  stockholders. 

2.  Our  complicated  American  City  Manager  Plan  in  operation, 
system  of  city  government 

will  be  changed  to  a  simplified 
system. 


346 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


The  Plan 

3.  City  government  will  be  con¬ 
ducted  not  by  partisans,  but 
by  men  skilled  in  business 
management  and  social 
science. 

4.  The  city  political  “boss”  will 
be  abolished. 

5.  Large  amounts  of  money  will 
not  be  spent  until  the  amount 
and  purpose  have  been  previ¬ 
ously  announced  to  the  people. 

6.  The  sale  of  all  city  franchises 
will  be  made  to  the  highest 
bidder. 

7.  All  city  rents  and  city  privi¬ 
leges  will  be  sold,  not  given 
away. 

8.  Organize  a  Monitor  Club  of 
disinterested,  responsible  citi¬ 
zens  to  watch  and  study  city 
government  and  report  to  the 
proprietors  of  the  city,  namely, 
the  people. 


The  Fulfilment 
This  is  now  being  accomplished. 

Done. 

New  charter  provides  for  this. 

Done. 

Done. 

Bureau  of  Municipal  Research 
established  1912. 


IV.  In  Social  Reconstruction 


1.  Improvement  associations 
will  flourish  in  the  new  Day- 
ton. 

2.  Provide  free  comfort  stations. 

3.  Provide  free  baths  for  the 
people. 

4.  Provide  free  conservatory  of 
music,  art  gallery,  and  art 
school. 


Entire  city  organized  in  such 
associations. 

* 

Done. 

Bomber ger  Park,  Wayne  Ave. 
Market  House  for  winter  and 
summer  and  Island  Park  for 
summer  service. 

Civic  Music  League,  a  pro¬ 
nounced  and  unusual  success. 
Art  museum  established. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DAYTON  347 


The  Plan 

5.  Furnish  loan  exhibitions  of 
valuable  paintings  and  offer 
them  free  to  the  public. 

6.  Provide  Botanical  Gardens. 

7.  Provide  a  Zoological  Garden. 

8.  Philanthropists  will  provide 
money  to  loan  the  poor  at 
reasonable  interest  charges. 

9.  The  drama  will  be  elevated. 

10.  The  churches  will  reach  out  to 
the  people;  not  fighting  old 
ideas,  but  helping  to  solve 
world  problems. 

11.  All  vehicles  provided  with 
pneumatic  tires  to  reduce 
noises. 

12.  A  competent  Board  of  Health 
will  be  provided. 

13.  Schoolhouses  will  be  built  on 
hygienic  principles. 

14.  Provide  a  municipal  hospital 
for  infectious  diseases. 

15.  Streets  will  be  kept  clean; 
washed  down  at  night,  as  in 
European  cities. 


The  Fulfilment 

This  is  done  annually. 

i 

The  Municipal  Greenhouse  offers 
a  beginning. 

Nothing. 

The  Provident  Collateral  Loan 
Company  organized  1915. 

The  Drama  League  organized 
1914. 

This  progressive  spirit  is  becom¬ 
ing  more  and  more  dominant. 


This  is  being  accomplished. 


A  Health  Officer  on  full  time 
with  46  assistants  provided 
January  1,  1914. 

Done. 

Nothing. 

This  has  been  done  since  1914. 


V.  In  City  Beautification 

1.  The  centre  of  the  city  will  be  It  is. 
given  up  wholly  to  business. 

2.  The  residences  of  the  people  Being  accomplished, 
will  be  found  scattered  far  out 

among  the  hills. 


348 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


The  Plan 

3.  Special  rates  of  fare  given 
workingmen  at  certain  hours 
to  encourage  living  out  in  the 
open  spaces. 

4.  Dayton  will  cultivate  the 
beautiful  in  her  homes  and 
buildings. 

5.  Flowers,  trees,  vines,  and 
fountains  will  grace  the  city. 

6.  Main  Street  will  be  parked  in 
the  centre  like  Unter  den  Lin¬ 
den,  Berlin. 

7.  There  will  be  parks  and  boule¬ 
vards  all  about  the  city. 

8.  The  Miami  River  will  be  a 
lake  and  its  banks  become 
parks. 

9.  The  Fair  Ground  will  be  beau¬ 
tified  and  devoted  to  the  use 
of  people  rather  than  horses. 

10.  All  wires  and  pipes  will  be 
laid  underground. 

11.  No  smoke  will  defile  the  city. 

*  12.  The  city  will  be  better 
lighted. 

13.  All  vacant  lots  will  be  used 
for  flower  gardens  or  vege¬ 
table  gardens  or  playgrounds. 


The  Fulfilment 
Now  going  on. 


Being  done. 


Dayton  is  becoming  more  and 
more  the  city  beautiful. 

This  found  undesirable. 


The  Olmstead  Park  plan  pre¬ 
pared  and  private  citizens  and 
the  city  are  establishing  large 
park  developments. 

The  Olmstead  plan  so  provides. 

This  is  not  yet  realized. 

This  is  in  the  way  of  complete 
accomplishment  in  centre  of 
city. 

Reduced  to  a  minimum. 

The  boulevard  system  and  in¬ 
creased  and  better  light  are 
being  provided. 

Many  are  so  used. 


He  did — although  it  took  him  a  quarter  of  a  century — 
what  he  started  out  to  do. 


CHAPTER  XX 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK 

JOHN  H.  PATTERSON  dreaded  above  all  else  the 
coming  of  a  twilight  into  his  life.  He  feared  to  sit 
still  and  wait  and  wait  to  die.  He  wanted  to  die 
working — not  waiting.  It  was  not  that  he  was  afraid  of 
dying;  he  was  afraid  of  not  being  able  to  do  his  work. 
For  as  he  grew  older  his  interests  broadened,  and  he  found 
more  and  more  things  to  do  or  have  done. 

He  could  not  tolerate  the  sort  of  man  who  amasses  a 
fortune,  calls  himself  successful,  and  retires  to  bask  in  the 
light  of  past  performance.  When  something  was  finished, 
Mr.  Patterson  crossed  it  off  his  chart  and  went  on  with  the 
next  thing.  And  when  he  died  his  chart  was  fuller  of 
things  to  do  than  at  any  time  before  in  his  life. 

The  last  ten  years  of  his  life  were  his  fullest  years  and 
they  were  devoted  almost  wholly  to  public  service.  Be¬ 
tween  the  age  of  sixty-seven  and  his  death  at  seventy- 
seven  John  H.  Patterson  reached  maturity.  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  he  started  late — that  he  was  past 
forty  before  he  took  on  the  N.  C.  R.  He  fought,  and  he 
worked  night  and  day  against  odds  almost  impossible  to 
realize.  Often,  had  he  admitted  to  himself  the  possibility 
of  being  bankrupt,  he  would  have  been  bankrupt.  Not 
recognizing  failure,  he  could  not  fail.  He  expected  ob¬ 
stacles  and  it  did  not  make  much  difference  what  kind  of 
obstacles  at  the  moment  stood  in  his  way — he  had  accus¬ 
tomed  himself  to  dealing  with  all  kinds. 

349 


350 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


But  as  he  grew  older  he  had  the  opportunity  to  give 
more  of  his  life  to  public  service  than  to  the  company; 
he  knew  the  company  and  conditions  so  thoroughly  that 
he  could  dispose  of  its  affairs  in  less  time  than  formerly. 
A  year  before  his  death  he  retired  from  the  presidency  and 
became  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  his  son 
Frederick  taking  his  former  place  as  president.  But  this 
was  only  a  detail  of  organization.  He  knew  that  before 
many  years  had  passed  he  must  die,  and  he  wanted  the 
company  to  be  administered  for  a  while  under  his  eye  in 
such  a  manner  that  his  death  would  not  disturb  the  smooth 
movement  of  affairs.  He  was  nearly  as  active  as  chairman 
of  the  company’s  affairs  as  he  had  been  when  president,  but 
the  new  place  which  he  made  for  himself  gave  a  sort  of 
titular  freedom  which  fitted  in  with  his  conceptions  of 
duty.  He  thought  that  the  president  ought  to  be  more 
active  in  the  affairs  of  the  company  than  he  then  cared  to 
be. 

His  desire  was  to  do  something  more  outside  the  com¬ 
pany  than  he  had  done — the  war  had  brought  to  him  the 
thought  that  every  man  who  could  should  work  unceas¬ 
ingly  for  peace  among  the  nations.  He  did  not  become 
chairman  in  order  to  give  himself  more  leisure;  he  had  no 
conception  of  leisure.  He  detested  the  “idle  rich”;  when¬ 
ever  he  heard  of  a  man  building  a  palace  or  spending  some 
great  sum  on  a  necklace,  he  usually  drew  a  chart  to  show 
how  much  good  that  man  missed  doing  by  not  devoting 
the  money  to  education  or  to  the  saving  of  babies.  He 
never  bought  an  expensive  painting  in  his  life;  he  was  not 
opposed  to  purchases  in  the  interest  of  the  public,  but  he 
spoke  bitterly  of  those  who  would  pay  a  quarter  of  a 
million  for  a  canvas  to  hang  in  their  own  homes  where  only 
they  and  their  friends  could  have  the  benefit. 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK 


351 


He  did  not  like  to  have  money  spent  on  him.  The  Hun¬ 
dred  Point  Club,  shortly  after  its  organization,  began  the 
custom  of  presenting  him  with  some  sort  of  a  memorial  at 
each  convention.  These  memorials  steadily  became  more 
expensive,  and  Mr.  Patterson  did  not  know  what  to  do. 
He  recognized  that  the  men  were  making  the  presentations 
from  the  best  of  motives,  but  he  had  for  many  years  pro¬ 
hibited  gifts  in  the  organization — ever  since  he  found  that 
foremen  were  exacting  toll  in  the  form  of  gifts  from  those 
under  them. 

For  some  years  he  accepted  the  gifts  and  had  them 
placed  in  the  factory  museum,  but  in  1914  the  club  pre¬ 
sented  him  with  an  oil  portrait  of  himself  that  had  cost 
about  fifteen  hundred  dollars — and  it  was  not  a  very  good 
portrait.  This  stood  on  the  stage  of  the  Schoolhouse 
through  the  whole  convention.  Mr.  Patterson  had 
affected  to  be  very  much  pleased.  Actually  he  was  in  a 
quandary,  for  he  was  exceedingly  particular  about  his 
portraits.  On  the  last  day  of  the  convention  he  was 
giving  a  talk  and,  as  usual,  he  had  a  piece  of  red  crayon  in 
his  hand;  as  he  warmed  into  his  subject  he  covered  pad 
after  pad  with  diagrams,  pictures,  and  pyramids.  The 
painting  was  standing  in  line  with  the  pedestal  pads  and 
Mr.  Patterson,  exhausting  one  pad  after  another,  came 
to  the  painting  and  absent-mindedly  continued  his  dem¬ 
onstration  in  red  chalk  on  the  portrait  itself.  The  club 
members  shuddered  as  they  saw  their  work  of  art  dis¬ 
appearing  under  the  red  chalk.  But  Mr.  Patterson  did 
not  seem  to  notice  what  he  had  done.  He  was  all  intent 
upon  making  his  sales  demonstration.  But  before  the 
next  convention  he  issued  an  order  that  the  rule  about 
gifts  from  subordinates  to  those  above  them  extended  also 
to  the  president! 


352 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


He  abhorred  useless  ostentation — not  because  it  was 
ostentation  but  because  it  was  useless.  He  favoured  any 
sort  of  a  show  that  would  convey  a  lesson — that  would 
do  good,  that  would  make  people  better.  He  considered 
himself  only  a  trustee  of  what  he  earned,  and  his  expendi¬ 
tures  had  to  be  governed  by  the  laws  he  made  for  his 
trusteeship.  He  expressed  his  whole  theory  of  the  use  of 
money  and  of  the  function  of  the  large  corporation  in 
pyramid  form  and  it  explains  intimately  how  he  shaped  his 
life.  This  is  the  pyramid  and  his  explanation: 


Division  of  Profits: 

$16,000,000  in  Trust  for  the  Five  Pyramids  Below: 

Mr.  J.  H.  Patterson,  Trustee  for  the  Five  Classes  Below.  Judge, 
Jury,  and  Executioner. 

Making:  Officers.  Heads.  Assistants.  Rank  and  file.  The  mak¬ 
ers  claim  they  should  have  most  because  they  make  them. 

Selling:  Officers.  Heads.  Clerks.  Rank  and  file.  Selling  people 
claim  theirs  is  the  hardest  work,  and  that  they  should  receive  the 
largest  part. 

Owners:  Three  Common  Stockholders.  2§  per  cent.  Two 
hundred  and  thirty  Preferred  Stockholders.  Dividend  limited  to 
7  per  cent,  and  can’t  be  more.  The  three  Common  Stockholders 
want  large  dividends  like  other  companies. 

Charity:  Missions,  colleges,  libraries,  hospitals,  churches, 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  universities,  educational  trip,  parks  for  people,  improve¬ 
ment  associations.  The  world  patronizes  us  and  the  world  solicits 
charity  from  us. 

World:  A  billion  people  are  injured  by  the  open  cash  drawer.  The 
jails  of  the  world  are  filled  with  the  victims  of  the  open  cash  drawer. 

The  three  owners  of  the  common  stock  are  better  for  the  people 
than  three  hundred  owners — because  the  dividend  can  be  smaller, 
hence,  a  large  part  of  the  profit  can  go  to  the  other  four  above  divi¬ 
sions. 

If  the  $16,000,000  assets  were  divided  among  eight  thousand 
employees  it  would  equal  $2,000  invested  for  each.  This  enables 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK  353 

each  employee  on  an  average  to  earn  50  per  cent,  on  $2,000,  i.  e., 
$1,000  yearly. 

Common  stockholders  receive  only  2§  per  cent,  dividend  on 
$9,000,000,  which  equals  $225,000.  The  increased  profit  stays  in  the 
business  and  enables  us  to  increase  the  business  and  do  more  good  to 
all  the  five  divisions.  Any  division  among  the  other  four  pyramids, 
such  as  increase  or  decrease  of  wages  or  commissions,  does  not  affect 
the  yearly  2§  per  cent,  paid  to  the  three  common  stockholders. 

J.  H.  Patterson  is  acting  as  manager  of  the  N.  C.  R.  for  the  people 
of  the  world,  his  dividend  of  2j  per  cent,  amounts  to  $123,700.  Part 
of  this  is  spent  on  Hills  and  Dales.  He  gives  to  deserving  but  un¬ 
fortunate  employees  and  to  others.  He  keeps  only  enough  for  his 
board  and  clothes  and  necessaries  for  himself  and  children.  He  has 
no  outside  investments  except  Hills  and  Dales  which  the  people  en¬ 
joy  with  him.  On  his  last  trip  he  can  take  nothing  with  him,  as 
shrouds  have  no  pockets. 

The  object  of  The  N.  C.  R.  Co.  is  to  stop  the  open  cash  drawer — to 
sell  at  lowest  prices  and  benefit  the  billion. 

National  Cash  Registers  are  the  lowest-priced  machinery  sold  in 
the  world. 

All  this  applies  to  coal,  iron,  oil,  food,  publication,  and  transporta¬ 
tion  and  all  other  things  necessary  for  the  good  of  the  people. 

The  masses  of  the  people  pay  the  taxes — as  taxes  increase,  rents 
increase.  The  users  pay  the  rents,  taxes,  and  duties  on  all  they  buy. 


“Shrouds  have  no  pockets”  was  one  of  his  favourite 
expressions.  He  never  made  an  investment  outside  of 
the  company  until  the  war  came  with  the  offerings  of 
Liberty  Bonds.  He  did  not  consider  those  bonds  as  in¬ 
vestments  at  all;  he  did  not  buy  them  as  investments; 
he  would  have  been  glad  not  to  have  had  them  bear  in¬ 
terest.  He  took  them  as  his  contribution  toward  the 
expense  of  causing  the  nation  to  endure.  For  he  was 
completely  an  American. 

And  as  an  American  he  threw  himself  into  the  war.  He 
thought  that  the  Allies  were  right  and  Germany  was 


354 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


wrong  and  he  wanted  the  United  States  in  the  war  long 
before  we  entered.  He  said  that  if  German  militarism 
had  to  be  suppressed  for  the  safety  of  the  world,  the 
task  had  best  be  taken  on  quickly.  He  hated  war  with 
all  the  intensity  of  his  nature,  but  he  thought  that  this  war 
might  end  war.  He  refused  to  accept  any  war  contracts 
from  the  belligerents  before  our  entry.  He  would  not 
permit  the  factory  to  be  in  the  class  with  a  mercenary. 
This  was  against  his  financial  interest,  for  the  outbreak 
of  the  war  abroad  shut  off  his  foreign  business  which  was 
then  very  large.  The  business  in  Germany  and  Austria 
had  been  the  most  important,  next  to  the  domestic  busi¬ 
ness.  All  of  which  meant  absolutely  nothing  to  Mr. 
Patterson  in  his  attitude  toward  the  Central  Powers;  he 
never  let  his  personal  interest  compromise  his  sense  of 
right. 

Business  at  home  dropped  very  rapidly  in  the  months 
following  August,  1914.  Mr.  Patterson  met  that  de¬ 
pression  as  he  had  met  every  other  depression — by 
drawing  up  a  new  sales  plan,  by  holding  conventions  all 
over  the  country,  by  extending  his  advertising  (Mr. 
Patterson  always  enlarged  his  advertising  when  business 
was  bad  for  it  was  then,  as  he  said,  it  was  most  needed), 
and  by  putting  on  sales  pressure  from  every  direction. 
One  of  the  large  ideas  of  this  period  was  to  hold  a  conven¬ 
tion  of  the  wives  of  the  salesmen  in  order  to  show  them 
how  to  aid  their  husbands  in  making  more  money.  This 
is  such  a  striking  instance  of  ingenuity  that  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson’s  own  description  of  what  happened  is  worth 
while: 

“  Leaving  business  at  the  office  sounds  like  a  good  rule, 
but  it  is  one  that  can  easily  be  carried  too  far  because,  to 
my  mind,  a  man  who  intends  to  make  a  success  should  be 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK 


355 


collecting  ideas  and  tips,  and  mapping  out  programmes 
during  every  waking  hour.  Dismissing  business  after 
office  hours  has  a  nice  sound,  but  I  have  found  that  often 
the  business  does  not  come  back  after  the  recess ! 

“  We  had  devoted  not  a  little  attention  for  many  years  to 
the  wives  of  the  agents  and  made  many  suggestions  as  to 
what  they  might  do  to  help  their  husbands.  We  had  told 
of  the  value  of  nourishing  food,  good  hours,  and  avoiding 
too  much  social  diversion,  while  we  had  also  given  plans 
for  mapping  out  budgets  and  coordinating  them  with 
income.  A  man  who  works  on  commission  seldom  real¬ 
izes  his  fancied  income;  when  he  has  a  good  week,  he 
thinks  that  all  weeks  will  have  the  same  return;  then  he 
marks  up  to  that  figure  his  expenditures  and  the  amount 
he  imagines  he  is  earning  for  the  year.  But  all  weeks  are 
not  good  weeks  and  that  salesman  usually  ends  the  year  in 
debt  and  wonders  why.  A  man  in  debt,  pressed  by  credi¬ 
tors,  does  not  work  so  well  as  the  carefree  man.  We  had 
sent  out  bulletins  on  all  these  points.  Then,  too,  we 
tried  to  teach  actual  salesmanship  to  the  women  so  that 
they  might  be  able  to  suggest  to  their  husbands;  this  we 
did  through  bulletins  and  local  conventions  to  which  the 
salesmen  were  asked  to  bring  their  wives.  In  New  York 
we  went  so  far  as  to  organize  a  woman’s  club  where  the 
wives  might  learn  all  about  selling  cash  registers. 

“These  plans  returned  some  measure  of  success,  but 
still  the  women  did  not  get  the  enthusiasm  that  comes  to 
the  salesmen  through  actual  contact  with  the  organization. 
How  best  could  we  give  them  that  enthusiasm — put  the 
idea  over  in  such  a  way  that  they  would  not  forget? 

“By  holding  a  convention  in  Dayton  with  all  the  stage 
settings  that  enable  us  so  dramatically  to  bring  the  selling 
force  up  on  their  toes!  What  had  helped  the  salesmen 


356 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


would  help  their  wives.  We  asked  them  to  come  and 
without  their  husbands.  I  confess  that  some  of  us  were 
a  bit  fearful  that  a  number  of  them  might  be  afraid  to 
make  the  journey  alone,  but  we  need  not  have  had  that 
fear.  Practically  everyone  we  asked  came,  and  for  five 
days  we  had  a  riot  of  enthusiasm. 

“I  have  been  speaking  of  cash  registers — directly  of 
my  own  affairs — but  in  the  principles  which  I  have  given 
there  is  nothing  that  does  not  apply  to  any  kind  of  a 
business  which  involves  the  employment  of  salesmen. 
Nor  need  it  stop  at  salesmen;  the  wives  of  factory  and 
office  workers  can  help  their  husbands  to  a  large  degree; 
what  we  have  done  with  the  wives  of  salesmen  is  only  a 
start  toward  making  a  partner  out  of  the  wife  of  every 
man  in  our  organization.  Perhaps  one  of  these  days  we 
shall  be  reversing  the  process  and  bringing  in  the  hus¬ 
bands  to  show  how  they  can  help  their  wives ! 

“Now  for  the  convention.  I  gave  a  blackboard  talk. 
I  drew  two  buildings;  the  one  was  our  factory  and  the 
other  the  store  of  the  prospective  customer,  and  then  I 
made  a  chain  connecting  them,  each  link  representing  a 
part  of  the  organization.  The  middle  link  was  the  wife 
of  the  salesman.  Then  I  spoke  to  them  something  after 
this  fashion: 

“‘We  want  cooperation  between  the  officers  of  the 
company,  the  agents,  salesmen,  office  men,  wives,  and 
sweethearts,  in  order  to  increase  our  profits  and  naturally 
the  profits  of  all  others  connected  with  our  organiza¬ 
tion.  I  am  sure  everyone  here  wants  his  earnings  in¬ 
creased.  It  will  be  up  to  the  wife  hereafter  to  double  her 
husband’s  earnings — to  double  the  amount  of  money  he 
brings  home  and  puts  into  her  hands.  You  women  are 
all  on  a  high  plane,  on  a  par  with  preachers.  You  are 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK  3 57 

doing  a  lot  of  good,  and  you  should  be  thankful  that  you 
belong  to  an  organization  of  this  kind. 

,  “  ‘Now  we  want  you  to  feel  that  your  presence  at  this 
meeting  will  help  to  improve  the  records  of  your  husbands, 
and  when  you  go  away  at  the  end  of  the  week  you  will  be 
more  enthusiastic  than  you  have  any  idea  of  at  this  time.’ 

“We  adopted  this  convention  motto:  ‘With  your  help 
he  can  succeed,’  and  then,  from  morning  until  night,  we 
kept  going.  We  showed  the  women  films  of  how  a  reg¬ 
ister  is  made,  took  them  through  the  factory  and  thus 
gave  them  the  setting — the  first  step  toward  making  a 
salesman  is  to  show  what  is  to  be  sold.  Then  we  started 
to  teach  them  the  business.  We  had  a  playlet  showing 
the  right  way  to  make  an  approach  and  a  demonstration, 
another  on  what  the  register  does  for  merchants,  and  a 
film  on  the  troubles  of  a  merchant  and  how  to  overcome 
them.  All  of  this  gave  them  an  idea  of  what  their  hus¬ 
bands  were  up  against  during  the  day. 

“Then  we  had  an  illustrated  lecture  on  dress  both  for 
men  and  women.  Of  course  that  interested  them,  and 
incidentally  we  managed  to  impress  on  them  the  value  of 
having  their  husbands  well  dressed. 

“So  many  women  fail  to  understand  that  a  man’s 
clothing  is  one  of  his  big  business  assets  and  that  almost 
anything  else  in  the  house  should  be  skimped  rather  than 
the  quality  of  his  clothing.  That  is  rather  a  delicate 
point  to  put  over,  but  we  tried'  to  answer  the  question : 
‘Why  should  my  husband  pay  sixty  dollars  for  a  suit  when 
I  cannot  afford  to  pay  that?’ 

“By  that  time  we  were  ready  for  the  big  message  of  the 
convention,  which  we  called:  ‘The  Sales  Managers’  Mes¬ 
sage  to  Wives.’  It  was  played  in  three  acts.  The  first 
part  gave  the  career  of  a  salesman  whose  wife  did  not 


358 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


help — who  kept  him  out  late  at  night,  sent  him  down  late  in 
the  morning,  called  him  up  during  the  day,  took  him  away 
from  business,  and  made  him  lose  definite,  concrete  sales. 
That  ended  with  the  little  money  bag.  Then  we  devel¬ 
oped  the  big  money  bag — with  the  wife  helping.  The 
play  was  designed  to  put  over  these  eight  points: 

“1.  A  salesman  should  have  plenty  of  wholesome  food 
— not  too  much,  but  enough — and  it  should  be  eaten  under 
pleasant  conditions. 

“2.  He  should  get  enough  sleep. 

“3.  He  should  start  to  work  early  because  the  more  pros¬ 
pects  he  interviews  the  more  sales  he  will  make. 

“4.  He  should  frequently  make  demonstrations  to  his 
wife  and  then  have  her  criticize,  especially  pointing  out  to 
him  the  use  of  long  words  the  prospect  might  not  under¬ 
stand. 

“5.  She  should  be  on  the  lookout  for  good  tips  and  keep 
two  eyes  open  in  stores  so  she  can  tell  her  husband  all 
about  the  conditions. 

‘‘6.  She  should  ask  for  a  receipt  with  her  purchases  so  as 
to  encourage  the  use  of  receipt  printers. 

“7.  She  should  not  take  him  away  from  his  work.  If  he 
has  to  demonstrate  after  business  hours  and  that  inter¬ 
feres  with  going  to  a  theatre,  she  should  insist  that  the 
social  affair  be  given  up  and  that  business  have  the  right 
of  way. 

“8.  She  should  encourage  him  when  he  is  ready  to  give 
up,  because  a  wife  can  do  more  in  the  way  of  encourage¬ 
ment  than  any  one  else.  And,  by  keeping  in  touch  with 
the  business  of  the  company  and  all  the  sales  literature, 
she  can  frequently  give  him  many  points. 

“Did  the  idea  go  over?  Let  the  facts  speak  for  them¬ 
selves. 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK 


359 


“One  of  the  older  men  had  a  deficit  in  his  quota  that 
was  steadily  growing  larger.  He  had  been  a  good  man, 
but  he  seemed  to  be  falling  down  and  was  really  getting 
very  near  the  ragged  edge.  His  territory  was  not  in  a 
particularly  agreeable  section  of  the  country,  and  for 
eighteen  years  his  wife  had  refused  to  live  there.  She 
came  to  the  convention;  she  heard,  she  saw,  and  she 
thought;  she  went  home,  packed  her  belongings,  and 
moved  into  the  formerly  detested  district,  to  be  with  her 
husband.  More  than  that,  she  is  helping  him  to  make 
sales,  and  he  has  been  turning  in  the  best  records  of  his 
career. 

“A  woman  in  the  Middle  West  has  dropped  her  house¬ 
work  and  spends  practically  all  of  her  time  making  trifling 
purchases  in  stores  that  do  not  have  registers,  or  have  old- 
style  ones,  and  then  taking  the  trouble  to  talk  about  the 
advantages  of  the  newer  systems.  Her  husband  has 
doubled  his  best  previous  record. 

“I  could  give  dozens  more  cases  of  the  results  of  that 
convention.” 

Mr.  Patterson  knew  no  caste  excepting  that  based  on 
ability.  A  good  workman  was  better  than  a  poor  work¬ 
man,  a  good  salesman  was  better  than  a  poor  salesman,  but 
only  because  he  took  it  that  the  good  workman  or  sales¬ 
man  was  the  man  who  had  tried  and  the  poor  workman 
or  salesman  was  the  man  who  had  not  tried.  He  believed 
in  the  equality  of  effort,  not  of  remuneration.  A  work¬ 
man  earning  twenty-five  dollars  a  week  for  good  work 
stood  just  as  high  with  him  as  an  executive  drawing  fifty 
thousand  dollars  a  year.  When  he  found  the  office  girls 
were  holding  themselves  above  the  factory  girls  because 
they  could  wear  better  clothing  while  at  work  he  put  all 
the  girls  in  the  organization  into  white  aprons  so  that 


360 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


there  could  be  no  clothing  distinctions.  He  would  not 
permit  one  class  of  employees  to  tyrannize  over  another — 
which  is  the  cruellest  of  all  tyrannies.  No  employer 
could  ever  think  of  doing  to  workmen  what  they  think  up 
to  do  to  one  another.  For  instance,  he  found  that  the 
people  had  to  walk  upstairs  to  work  in  the  morning  at  the 
factory  because  the  engineers  would  not  bother  to  get  in 
ahead  of  time  to  start  the  power. 

“I  got  there  ahead  of  the  procession,”  said  Mr.  Pat¬ 
terson,  4  4  and  found  the  men  and  women  all  coming  to  work 
together  at  the  same  time.  The  factory  was  dark  and 
dreary  looking.  No  elevators  were  running.  I  asked  the 
engineer  what  the  trouble  was.  He  answered: 

“‘Why,  of  course,  we  never  run  the  elevators  until  the 
power  starts.’ 

“‘Well,  indeed,’  I  remarked.  ‘You  start  the  elevators 
and  start  the  lights  twenty  minutes  before  the  whistle 
blows  to-morrow.  And,’  I  continued,  as  he  looked  at 
me,  ‘don’t  say  it;  don’t  say  it.  I  know  what  you  are 
going  to  say,  but  don’t  say  it.’  So  he  just  said  nothing 
and  walked  away.” 

America  entered  the  war.  Mr.  Patterson  went  into  it 
as  into  a  holy  war — he,  like  many  others,  thought  it  a  war 
to  end  war.  He  wanted  to  do  many  times  as  much  as  he 
was  permitted  to  do.  He  considered  nothing  but  war. 
He  offered  his  plant,  organization,  and  fortune  unre¬ 
servedly  to  the  Government  and  he  chafed  bitterly  under 
the  red  tape  and  bureaucratic  pawing  about  which  so 
delayed  our  getting  down  to  real  work.  The  day  after 
war  was  declared,  he  called  a  general  meeting  and  an¬ 
nounced  : 

“We  are  at  war.  It  is  not  the  war  of  our  Government. 
It  is  our  war.  We  must  all  do  our  part.  Business  must 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK 


361 


continue,  for  without  business  we  shall  not  have  money  to 
loan  the  Government  nor  shall  we  have  our  organization 
ready  to  do  any  work  the  Government  may  ask  us  to  do. 
But  hereafter  our  motto  shall  be:  War  first ,  business 
second — if  there  is  any  time  for  business” 

The  Government  offered  the  N.  C.  R.  a  large  number  of 
contracts  involving  precise  work  such  as  shell  timers, 
instruments  for  airplanes,  and  the  like.  The  organiza¬ 
tion  was  shifted  over  to  war  work.  The  factory  kept  on 
making  cash  registers,  but  only  to  the  extent  that  the 
work  did  not  interfere  with  the  Government  contracts. 
So  successful  was  the  company  in  finishing  its  contracts 
that  work  on  which  other  factories  had  failed  was  turned 
over  to  them  and  by  the  end  of  the  war  the  place  was  al¬ 
most  wholly  on  a  war  basis.  And  all  of  this  war  work  was 
on  a  fixed-price  basis;  Mr.  Patterson  refused  absolutely  to 
operate  on  cost  plus — he  said  that  he  would  not  be  put  into 
the  position  of  profiting  out  of  possible  extravagance. 
So  in  spite  of  rising  costs,  he  took  his  chances  on  fixed 
prices  and  he  was  proud  not  to  have  made  any  money  out 
of  the  country’s  necessity. 

Only  a  part  of  his  work  was  in  the  factory;  he  put  the 
force  of  the  N.  C.  R.  advertising  and  methods  into  Liberty 
Bond  drives,  into  Red  Cross  drives — into  every  drive. 
He  looked  after  the  families  of  the  three  hundred  men  who 
went  out  of  the  organization  to  join  the  colours — among 
them  were  his  son  Frederick  and  five  other  members  of  his 
family.  He  prepared  several  lectures  illustrated  with 
motion  pictures  and  sent  them  out  through  the  country; 
on  a  single  one  of  these  lectures  he  spent  fifty  thousand 
dollars  in  preparation. 

The  company  ran  heavily  into  debt;  he  did  not  care. 
He  cared  for  nothing  but  the  winning  of  the  war;  he 


302 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


gloried  in  having  something  to  give.  For  remember  that 
he  considered  the  N.  C.  R.  as  a  public  institution  to  create 
wealth  in  time  of  peace  and  to  perform  whatever  service 
might  be  required  of  it  in  time  of  war.  If  the  Govern¬ 
ment  had  told  him  that  blowing  up  the  whole  place  would 
help  win  the  war,  he  would  have  blown  it  up  within  an 
hour  of  getting  the  message. 

The  war  over,  he  turned  to  business  again.  He  set  plans 
afoot  for  building  up  the  American  business  and  then  left 
for  Europe  to  see  for  himself  what  had  become  of  the 
foreign  business.  The  conditions  in  the  belligerent  coun¬ 
tries  appalled  him;  he  thought  that  President  Wilson’s 
League  of  Nations  was  the  only  hope  of  world  salvation 
and  he  came  home  filled  with  the  plan.  He  had  a  whole 
series  of  pyramids  drawn  on  the  basis  that  the  League  gave 
a  method  for  managing  the  world  on  a  business  basis.  He 
idealized  the  plan  and  he  was  deeply  chagrined  when  the 
Treaty  failed  in  the  Senate. 

Nevertheless,  he  supported  General  Leonard  Wood,  a 
League  opponent,  for  the  presidential  primary  elections  in 
1920,  and  when  Senator  Harding  gained  the  nomination  he 
worked  and  voted  for  him.  He  was  a  Republican,  and  al¬ 
though  he  thought  that  the  Republican  Party  was  wrong 
on  the  League  he  considered  it  more  capable  of  governing 
than  the  Democrats.  He  blamed  the  League  failure  not  on 
the  Republican  Party  but  on  President’s  Wilson’s  method 
of  presentation.  He  felt  that  the  League  should  not  have 
been  tied  up  with  the  Treaty. 

He  was  as  enthusiastic  over  the  Conference  on  the 
Limitation  of  Armaments  as  over  the  League.  But  he 
persisted  in  the  thought  that  the  United  States  ought  to 
find  a  way  to  join  the  League.  In  the  hope  of  finding  a 
way,  in  1920  he  attended  the  session  of  the  League  at 


THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK 


363 


Geneva.  Day  after  day  he  sat  at  the  sessions  open  to  the 
public.  He  was  chagrined  that  only  America  of  the  great 
nations  of  the  world  was  unrepresented.  He  gave 
luncheons  to  delegates — hoping  to  get  suggestions  as  to 
how  the  United  States  could  be  induced  to  enter.  He 
spent  much  time  with  Lord  Northcliffe  and  Lord  Robert 
Cecil.  He  made  many  charts.  He  wore  himself  out. 
He  cabled  for  Doctor  Barr  early  in  1921. 

“I  found  him,”  said  Doctor  Barr,  “  utterly  worn  out  at 
Monte  Carlo  with  his  sister,  Mrs.  Crane.  We  remained 
on  the  Riviera  until  he  was  able  to  travel  and  then  we 
returned  to  Dayton  via  Paris  and  London.  But  the 
strain  had  been  too  much  for  him;  he  was  never  quite  so 
strong  again.” 

Returning  to  Dayton  he  kept  in  bed  for  a  time  and  then 
went  to  Battle  Creek.  He  came  back  refreshed  and 
ready  to  go  to  work.  And  he  did  work — not  quite  so  long 
or  so  hard  as  before  but  enough  to  keep  in  touch  with  all 
the  company  affairs  and  the  largest  of  his  public  plans. 

Early  in  May,  1922,  he  decided  to  go  to  Atlantic  City — 
every  little  while  he  enjoyed  a  week  or  two  at  Atlantic 
City.  He  was  feeling  particularly  well  and  deeply  in¬ 
terested  in  retaining  McCook  Field  at  Dayton  as  an 
aviation  centre.  On  Friday,  May  5th,  he  received  Brig¬ 
adier  General  Mitchell  and  Major  Bane  of  the  Air  Service 
at  Far  Hills  and  went  over  his  plans  with  them.  Then 
he  decided  to  start  for  A\tlantic  City  the  next  day.  On 
Saturday  morning,  before  leaving,  he  called  a  meeting  at 
his  office  to  talk  over  the  air-service  plans  and  to  get  some¬ 
thing  in  motion  while  he  was  gone.  At  the  meeting  was 
his  son  Frederick,  who  had  served  in  the  aviation  branch 
during  the  war,  Mr.  Barringer,  Doctor  Barr,  and  Mr. 
Karr,  the  publicity  director.  Mr.  Patterson  as  a  result 


364 


JOHN  H.  PATTERSON 


of  the  meeting  drew  a  chart  defining  the  future  operations. 
That  evening  he  left  with  Roberts  for  Atlantic  City. 
Doctor  Barr  was  to  follow  later.  Mr.  Patterson  said  he 
felt  so  well  that  there  was  no  reason  for  Doctor  Barr  to 
make  the  journey  with  him.  The  next  day  at  noon,  May 
7th,  Mr.  Patterson  and  Roberts  arrived  in  Philadelphia 
and  boarded  the  one  o’clock  train  for  Atlantic  City,  get¬ 
ting  on  at  North  Philadelphia.  He  said  that  he  felt  tired 
and  Roberts  arranged  him  on  the  couch  in  the  drawing 
room  they  had  engaged. 

“Mr.  Patterson,  you  haven’t  had  your  lunch,”  said 
Roberts,  “and  there  is  no  diner  on  this  train.  We  shall 
have  to  eat  something  out  of  the  basket.”  Mr.  Patterson 
ate  so  little  and  his  food  was  so  special  that  a  fitted 
luncheon  basket  was  always  part  of  the  travelling  equip¬ 
ment.  “I  will  get  something  ready,”  continued  Roberts, 
turning  to  the  basket. 

“But,”  answered  Mr.  Patterson,  “you  have  not  had 
your  own  dinner  yet.  .  .  .  ” 

He  gave  a  single  short  gasp.  The  light  had  been 
clicked  off.  He  had  fought  a  good  fight.  He  had 
finished  his  course.  He  had  kept  his  faith. 


THE  END 


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'  M 


V. 


I 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  HEIGHTS 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 

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